The Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) president and executive co-ordinator are under investigation by the Ottawa Police for fraud.
The federation’s former president Hadi Wess filed a police report raising the possibility that current SFUO president, Rizki Rachiq and executive director, Vanessa Dorimain are involved in fraud, according to La Rotonde, the campus’s French independent student newspaper.
André Bélanger, business development and risk manager at Caisse Desjardins—the federation’s bank—was the first to alert Wess about the possibility of fraud within the SFUO on Apr.16, according to the police report obtained by the paper.
The tip led Wess to conduct an internal investigation, which uncovered “significant details,” the report said, and he then contacted the SFUO financial director, Nicole Labossiere three days later.
According to the report, Rachiq had opened a separate bank account for a student club named “Testing Restaurants UOttawa,” which the SFUO described as a “faulty club.” The allegations against Dorimain include fraudulent use of the federation’s funds for an annual event called “LeaderAction” in April.
The bank account for the Testing Restaurants UOttawa club has two debit cards, both under Rachiq’s name and multiple addresses.
Some of the expenses allegedly charged to the club’s debit card include a $950 pair of glasses from Albert Optical, a $609.37 charge at Louis Vuitton, a $498.30 charge at J’aime Coiffure—a hair salon in Montreal—and a transaction of $338.28 at Audi Lauzon.
According to Wess’s report, the club was never approved by the SFUO vice-president (equity), as is mandatory for all student clubs. But, he said he suspects the letter given to the bank dated January 15, 2016 to open the bank account in January 2017 was not authentic.
The letter was allegedly signed by Camelia Touzany, the SFUO vice-president (finance) from October 2015 to April 2016, certifying that the club is “officially recognized” by the SFUO and giving Rachiq signing authority over transactions for the club.
However, in the Fulcrum article, Touzany said she was not involved in signing the letter that certified the club, and attested that those were not her words.
Wess’s police report also noted inconsistencies, as the letter referred to Touzany as the president of the SFUO.
According to the report, Rachiq received over $20,000 from the federation after creating the “faulty club.”
In an email to the Charlatan, Wess said he had “a due diligence and fiduciary duty to report the potential fraud,” as he was president during the time he was alerted.
Before he was president, Rachiq was the SFUO vice-president (finance) at the time in April 2018.
He said currently, the SFUO is required to do a financial audit every year, and assumes that following the ongoing forensic audit commissioned by the SFUO’s Board of Administration (BOA), there will be “a long list of recommendations to avoid another case like this one.”
The BOA held an in-camera meeting to discuss the fraud allegations and forensic audit on Aug. 12, according to the Fulcrum, where several motions were voted on pertaining the case. Rachiq was not at the meeting, based on advice from his lawyer, but he did not have a proxy present either.
The first motion to pass was approving Dorimain as the new chair of the meeting, despite several members of the Board and the public citing a conflict of interest because of the allegations against her, according to an article in the Fulcrum.
Following her approval as chair, the board also voted in favour of a resolution to have Wess pay almost $1,000 in legal fees to the Toronto law firm he consulted while investigating the tip he received.
They also voted in favour of a resolution that would not allow the forensic audit to be used in a prosecution unless approved by the BOA.
However, motions attempting to suspend Rachiq and Dorimain—one with, and one without pay—both failed to pass.
According to the Fulcrum, Paige Booth, SFUO vice-president (external), told members of the public gallery that Rachiq retracted his signing authority for the federation until further notice.
Wess said he’s worried that Rachiq and Dorimain remaining in their positions following the allegations would affect the relationship of trust between the students and the federation.
“How can students trust an organization where the president, facing potential fraud charges, continues to be a signing authority for the organization?” he said. “How can students trust the leadership of the SFUO while they continue to employ an executive director who may or may not have been complicit and/or fully engaged in this fraud?”
Rachiq was reached for comment, but did not respond in time for publication.
The University of Ottawa released a statement saying it will freeze all payment transfers to the SFUO, but “measures will be put in place to ensure the continuity of financial operations until the results of the forensic audit are available.”
The Charlatan acknowledges that none of these allegations against the SFUO executives have been proven in court.
Photo illustration by Aaron Hemens
