North America Milling Company

North America Milling Company, a Whitby, Ontario-based flour miller and distributor of bagged and bulk flours for baking and food service industries, was placed in receivership on December 21 on application by Farm Credit Canada (FCC), owed approximately $9.2MM. In September 2017, the Toronto Sun and other GTA newspapers reported on a multimillion dollar fraud investigation undertaken by the Toronto Police Service named "Project Briscola". After the FCC discovered that one of the parties charged was the company's owner, Sanjeev Mannan, it engaged forensic investigators and a private investigations agency to review the company's loan portfolio. They found that equipment purportedly purchased using FCC funds did not appear on the company's premises and there were material irregularities in its financial statements. Further surveillance of the company's flour mill confirmed that there were no shipments of flour, too few employees to produce at volumes reported by the company and idle machinery. The company also had a number of connections to a milling operation called Loretta Flour, which was subject to a receivership under similar circumstances in 2010. PwC was appointed receiver. Counsel is Blakes for the applicant.