Authorities say a former employee of Casinos of Winnipeg is facing charges after allegedly defrauded the corporation over $275,000.

A 51-year-old former employee of  Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries Corporation's Casino Tours Department is facing laundering and fraud charges. This comes after The Winnipeg Police Service's Financial Crimes Unit found over 300 fraud, theft, and money-laundering events.

Charged on March 2, she is facing:

  • Fraud Over $5,000
  • Theft Over $5,000
  • Laundering Proceeds of Crime
  • Mischief to Data

They say the over $275,000 in losses occurred by falsified bus transportation, overpaying bus tour companies, and manipulating numbers to say more patrons booked tours than they did.

"Casinos of Winnipeg provides tour packages to casinos and hires various companies to provide bus transportation.  Part of the bus operators' payment is based on the number of patrons booked for each tour," the WPS says in a statement.

The WPS says the tour companies did not know they were being overpaid.

"The tour operators were unsuspecting when they were then directed to make payments based on their existing business relationship with the suspect, who also owned a bus company."

This was discovered when Liquor & Lotteries conducted an audit, finding the fraud and theft-related occurrences dating back to 2017 until 2019.