Judge sentences 3 ex-SaskTel managers to jail for fraud
Three former SaskTel employees who were found guilty of defrauding the Crown corporation are going to jail.
On Friday, a Queen's Bench judge sentenced Joan Yasinowski, Barry Richardson and Dan Crites, all ex-managers at the phone company, to 18 months in jail.
Each of them has been ordered to pay back $33,333.
An investigation was launched in 2009 after SaskTel called in the RCMP. Charges were laid three years later.
In December, a jury in Regina found the three guilty.
Yasinowski had worked at SaskTel since 1973. She was a warehouse manager. Richardson started at SaskTel in 1981 and was a senior purchasing manager. Crites, who also started in the 80s, was an operational manager.
According to information provided in court, the three were able to get another company — Triple Two Steel (a salvage company with a warehouse across the street from a Sasktel warehouse) — to bid on work for SaskTel Max project. Max is SaskTel's cable television service.
Family members would actually perform the work. Triple Two would keep the GST and 10 per cent of the invoice before taxes and then hand over the other 90 per cent to Yasinowski. She was paying the workers in cash.
The three were also involved in a company they formed called Green Really Works.
SaskTel was alerted by the owner of Triple Two, who suspected something was amiss.
All three were suspended and then fired.
The judge said the fraud cost SaskTel over $100,000.
The Crown prosecutor had sought a three-year sentence. The defense argued for community-based sentences.
"It's not a victimless crime just because the victim has deep pockets," Judge Guy Chicoine said in handing down the 18-month sentences.
