Calgary Fraud Appeal: Restaurant Owners Challenge Convictions

CALGARY — Three restaurant owners convicted of pocketing $44,000 from temporary foreign workers are now fighting to walk away from their fraud convictions and jail time. Mary Roche, Maninkandan Kasinthan, and Chandramoahan Marjak—found guilty in May 2025—have all filed appeals with the Alberta Court of Appeal, betting they can beat the system that caught them squeezing workers who had nowhere else to turn.

The Scam: Charging Workers for Their Own Jobs

The scheme was simple and brutal. The trio charged employees for Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs), the mandatory paperwork that lets foreign workers legally take jobs in Canada. Under federal law, employers must eat the $1,000-per-application processing fee. No exceptions. No "admin costs." The owners ignored that rule entirely, billing workers directly and collecting the cash.

It's the kind of move that works because the victims are vulnerable—temporary workers who need the job more than they need to fight back. The federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program has been reworked repeatedly in recent years, largely because cases like this keep surfacing.

The Lawyers Step In

Now the legal counterpunch begins. Defence counsel Faisan Butt, representing Roche, has filed to toss her fraud conviction and her 90-day jail sentence. Lawyer Sofian Butt is doing the same for Kasinthan and Marjak. The Alberta Crown Prosecution Service is expected to dig in and defend the original verdicts.

The Alberta Court of Appeal will decide whether the convictions stand or the owners get another roll of the dice.