TORONTO – More than a decade ago Salim Damji convinced thousands of Ismaili Muslims to invest in his fake teeth whitening product — a $100-million scam dubbed at the time to be the largest of its kind in Canadian history, reported Toronto Star newspaper.
At the time, Damji blamed the mob for roping him into the scam. The judge didn’t buy it and sentenced him to 6½ years in prison in 2002.
York Regional Police now allege that the 45-year-old Stouffville resident is the mastermind behind a romance and investment Ponzi scheme in which at least 20 victims lost $1.2 million.
“He would meet women in various bars in the Greater Toronto Area … In the first instance, his pitch was that he lived a lifestyle like Richard Gere in the film Pretty Woman,” said Det. Karim Bardai of York police’s major fraud unit.
“That was the pitch to his women that he could get them a higher rate of return on their investments and have them live debt-free.”
Damji was arrested in January on one count of fraud over $5,000, one count of fraud over $5,000 public, false pretenses and laundering proceeds of crime.
On Friday, police announced they had arrested three alleged accomplices — Yiaoming Liang, Shafin Damji (Salim’s brother) and Ansari Farhan — on charges that include fraud over $5,000 and laundering proceeds of crime.
York police spokesman Const. Andy Pattenden said these three have been released on bail. Salim Damji remains in custody.
Police ask that any other possible victims come forward. None of the allegations has been proven in court.
The major fraud unit started to focus its investigation in April 2014, according to a news release issued Friday. The unit had become aware of a suspect who had befriended a woman at an Aurora bar, convincing her that “if she invested money with him, he could generate significant short-term returns on those investments,” according to the release, which said the victim gave the suspect $50,000, which was transferred into various accounts.
“It is believed the suspect used portions of funds collected from victims to pay other victims smaller amounts of money to show return on their investments with him,” said the release.
One of Damji’s alleged victims told the Stouffville Sun-Tribune earlier this year that she had given him $67,000 after dating him for more than a year starting in 2013, believing he was an RBC investment banker. She said he was using a different name. (York police allege Damji has used various aliases.)
“That’s my life’s savings,” the woman told the newspaper.
She said even though she didn’t see him after their first encounter, they continued a relationship over the phone. She said she sent him $50,000 — she was caring for a sick relative and needed the money she believed a profitable investment would generate — followed by other payments later.
By the time she realized it was a scam, it was too late. She has yet to get her money back.
“I can’t believe I fell for it, him sweet-talking me into it. I thought I was smarter than that, but I fell for it,” Melissa told the newspaper.
Damji was thrust into the spotlight in 2002 when he was sentenced to prison for bilking thousands of his fellow Ismaili Muslims out of millions of dollars.
“The 32-year-old was touting the deal of a lifetime,” the Star reported at the time. “Invest now in his company, Strategic Trading System, and when his teeth-whitening invention was bought up by Colgate-Palmolive for $400 million, every investor would become a millionaire.”
Ismaili Muslims from across Canada gave him money. Some would thrust $100 bills into his hands as they gathered outside a mosque.
The Crown contended Damji had a serious gambling problem. He was living the high life, which included an $800,000 luxury condominium at Palace Pier at the mouth of the Humber River.
His defence lawyer, Joe Markin, argued it was not Damji’s fault — it was the mob.
“Markin had told the court that unnamed mobsters had forced Damji to carry out the fraud, threatening to kill his family if he didn’t follow their orders,” the Star reported.
“It was a ‘crime of duress,’ ” argued Markin, explaining how Damji was forced to buy nine luxury cars worth $500,000 just to show that he was the brains behind the fraud, while the millions he took from the investors went south, into the hands of organized crime lords in Costa Rica and Jamaica.
The judge dismissed that scenario, saying Damji’s “selfishness and callousness” had devastated many people in his community.
Courtesy Toronto Star
