MLL sues worker over casino tour fraud
That amount has been deducted from the damages the corporation is seeking in its lawsuit, the court filing says.
Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MLL) has initiated a lawsuit against a former employee who was sentenced to house arrest in March for defrauding the Crown corporation, seeking hundreds of thousands of dollars beyond what the court mandated her to repay.
Lori Mann, in her mid-50s, pleaded guilty to one count of fraud exceeding $5,000 and received a 14-month house arrest sentence.
From 2017 to 2019, Mann served as the coordinator of tours and group sales at MLL, where she altered computer records to show inflated passenger numbers for the bus tour contractor Tony’s Team Transport, resulting in a benefit of $52,600 for the company, according to court documents.
In a lawsuit filed in the Court of King’s Bench on September 27 by lawyers Dean Giles and Alexa Smith, her former employer is requesting a judgment of $235,885, or, alternatively, damages to be determined at trial. They are also pursuing aggravated, exemplary, or punitive damages, along with interest and legal fees.
Mann's sentence included an order to pay MLL $40,000 in restitution, which a Crown prosecutor stated represented a portion of the Crown corporation’s insurance deductible.
This amount has been subtracted from the damages sought in the lawsuit, as indicated in the court filing.
Mann was responsible for organizing casino tours from Winnipeg contracted with third-party companies, greeting patrons, counting attendees, and entering data into the Crown corporation’s system, according to the court documents.
“The plaintiff placed its trust and confidence in the defendant that, in the course of completing her duties, she would use her access to information and relationship with third-party tour operators for proper purposes and not for her personal benefit,” the court filing states.
According to the lawsuit, Mann owed MLL a duty of fidelity, loyalty, and good faith but violated this duty by misappropriating funds.
The Crown corporation claims Mann pressured tour operators to falsify invoices and provided her with kickbacks to secure contracts with MLL. The filing alleges that she added names to passenger manifests, edited passenger counts, and input cancelled, duplicated, or fabricated tours, leading to overpayments.
MLL was alerted to Mann’s misconduct in April 2019, which led to her being placed on leave before she resigned.
“It was only after the defendant resigned from her employment that, through the completion of a forensic investigation, the plaintiff discovered the extent of the defendant’s unlawful misappropriation, conversion of funds, and other fraudulent activity,” the statement of claim asserts.
During Mann’s criminal proceedings this year, Crown prosecutor Terry McComb noted deficiencies in MLL’s record-keeping, oversight, and internal investigation. Her sentence resulted from a plea bargain that considered these issues.
The court found no evidence that Mann personally benefited from her alterations to the computer records.
In her comments to the court in March, Mann suggested that she modified the passenger figures in good faith, believing they accurately represented the number of people on the buses, although she admitted she did not “investigate” to confirm.
Her lawyer informed the court that Mann had been facing family and mental health challenges, particularly when her job responsibilities expanded in 2017 to include managing the payments to tour operators.
Additionally, Mann’s business, Maple Bus Lines, has faced multiple lawsuits regarding unpaid loans and services.
