Ahmad Ebad Ebadi, 26, posed as a bondsman sent to collect money from seniors who thought they were bailing a grandson out of legal trouble.
Ahmad Ebad Ebadi says he took advantage of Saskatchewan hospitality when he participated in a fraud that drained more than $100,000 from Saskatoon seniors who thought they were bailing a grandson out of legal trouble.
Speaking in a Saskatoon provincial courtroom at his sentencing hearing late Tuesday afternoon, Ebadi, who posed as a bondsman sent to collect bail money, said he regretted getting involved in the scam the second he saw his first victim.
“The other people involved in this didn’t have to see the eyes of the victims and I will have to live with that every day of my life,” he told court.
Crown prosecutor Carol Carlson said Ebadi had been hired as a “runner” working at the lower end of a larger, sophisticated scheme operating out of Eastern Canada. He was sent to Saskatoon from Quebec in December 2022, and again in January 2023.
Some of his nine victims, aged 68 to 87, indicated through written statements that the money they handed over — between $8,000 and $10,000 each — was saved for either their retirement or their funeral.
Ebadi said he was moved by how the victims didn’t hesitate to help their loved ones.
“Grandparents, they are the people who are the easiest to catch because you want to help your family. Even if it’s your last penny, you’re going to do it,” said Helen, who came to court with her husband Larry.
The couple, who are in their 80s, helped thwart the scam after a caller purporting to be a lawyer said their grandson had been in a car crash and needed $9,000 to get out of jail. The scammer then gave the phone to someone posing as their grandson, who Larry said had a scratchy voice and pretended to be sick.
Helen and Larry — whose last name is being withheld because of safety concerns — were on their way to get the cash on Jan. 10, 2023, but something felt wrong. Helen said they called their son, and then their grandson.
“When (my grandson) answered the phone on the first ring, I said, ‘I could hug you a thousand times,’ like it was such a relief because I knew it was a scam.”
She called police, who arranged a sting in which an undercover officer handed over an envelope stuffed with paper instead of money. Helen’s job was to keep the fraudster on the phone until Ebadi arrived.
The Crown and defence lawyer Logan Marchand agreed that Ebadi should receive a jail sentence. Carlson argued he should spend just over a year in custody, while Marchand argued for a term of between 18 months and two years less a day, to be served in the community under conditions.
Judge Brad Mitchell will choose a date for his sentencing decision this week.
Marchand noted his client is the only one who has repaid any money, and a jail sentence could prevent him from continuing to make reparations. He brought a $10,000 cheque to court to start repaying the $74,929.45 restitution order sought by the Crown.
Ebadi and two other Quebec men were arrested in Saskatoon in connection with the scam, in which fraudsters pretended to be lawyers, police officers and grandsons, convincing seniors that their grandson was in a car crash in which either drugs were found or a pregnant woman was rear-ended.
Reading the facts, Carlson said the seniors were told a “gag order” was in place that prevented them from talking to other family members about the situation. She said in some cases, the scammers pretending to be their grandsons would trick the victims into giving them their loved one’s name.
After the victims took out money, the runners were given information about the target, the story they were told, where to collect the money and how much. Court heard investigators learned how the scheme worked through messaging groups on Signal, an encrypted messaging service, that were created every time a runner was sent to a new city.
Sofyane Elgamal, 27, is still before the court.
Ebadi, who’s been out of custody since his arrest, said he flew from Quebec with his mother and two brothers so that he could personally apologize to the people he hurt.
“I can’t imagine the families that were involved, and Saskatchewan showed me what Canadian hospitality is. I’ve been in urban areas all my life and I never felt the love and the care and the hospitality that I felt here,” Ebadi said.
“The cops were professional, even the victims, who were talking about all they wanted to hear was their family member being OK. I’m very deeply sorry to have affected this community in this sort, and looking back, was I this vile, disgusting, heinous person? Yes I was, because of the actions I took.”
Marchand said his client was recruited into the scam while working in the ride share business. Court heard Ebadi was at the lowest point in his life, caught in a spiral of depression and financial stress after dropping out of school due to his mother’s health issues.
Ebadi is not a “gangster,” Marchand said, adding his client thought it was safer to “continue on” in the fraud scheme even though he didn’t like what it entailed.
Since his arrest, Ebadi has been working hard while on a strict curfew and continues to see a psychiatrist for his depression, Marchand told court.
“He sounded very sincere, that he’s really sorry for what he did and that he wants to better himself now,” Helen said outside court.
“He was caught in a web, and he needed the money. Who I would like to really get is the people at the top that recruit these fellows for crime. They should be the ones paying restitutions.”
During Oligny’s sentencing, Carlson said the people who created the complex, Canada-wide fraud network hide behind phones while “runners” become the faces of the scheme and take the fall.
Organized crime charges against Oligny and Ebadi were dropped. After their arrest, police said they were looking for others involved in the criminal organization and communicating with other jurisdictions to see if the Saskatoon frauds were linked to other communities.
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