Three Calgary restaurant owners have been sentenced to 90-day jail terms for defrauding their immigrant employees. Manikandan Kasinathan, Chandramohan Marjak, and Mary Roche, co-owners of Marina Dosa and Tandoori Grill, were convicted of fraud over $5,000. They must serve their sentences on weekends and also face 18 months of probation. The trio must repay $44,000 they stole from three employees. The trial, which started in 2024 and concluded in May 2025, resulted in their conviction by Justice Sandra Mah.
The victims, temporary foreign workers from India employed as cooks at the defendants’ restaurant, were coerced into paying $24,000 each for a Labour Market Impact Assessment, falsely claimed as government fees related to their immigration. The reality was that the employers were only required to pay a $1,000 processing fee for each employee’s assessment documentation. Threats of deportation were used to intimidate the victims into compliance.
One victim paid the full $24,000, while the others paid $12,000 and $8,000, respectively. The victims worked long hours, with one individual working six days a week for 12 to 14 hours daily to repay the debt. The living conditions provided by the offenders were deemed “substandard,” with verbal and physical abuse reported by the victims.
The victims eventually reported the abuse, leading to the convictions. Despite the accused’s denial and claims that any payments were for legitimate expenses, the judge rejected their defense. The accused did not testify in their defense during the trial, and their lawyers’ arguments were dismissed by the court.