Fraud scheme launched while scamming immigration
By Kim Bolan
Vancouver Sun
August 7, 2009
An ICBC scammer who admitted he entered into a marriage of convenience to get status in Canada later persuaded an immigration adjudicator to let him stay.
Jozsef Suska spun a good yarn back in 2002, saying he had lied when he claimed to an immigration officer that his marriage was fake and later brought people to testify that the same marriage was, in fact, authentic.
At the time of the immigration hearing, Suska was already in the midst of a multi-year scheme to defraud ICBC of hundreds of thousands of dollars by staging thefts of vehicles, and even an accident.
Last week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ordered the native of Hungary to pay about $350,000 of a $520,000 award to ICBC as the mastermind of the fraud ring that continued from 2000 to 2006. Justice Christopher Hinkson called Suska an admitted and unmitigated liar.
But Immigration and Refugee Board adjudicator Marc Tessler ruled in September 2002 that Suska was telling the truth that his marriage was real, despite his extensive comments to a government agent that it was not. It was injudicious of him in the extreme to announce to an immigration officer in an immigration office that he had married only for immigration purposes and that he had paid his spouse for her role in the scheme, Tessler said.
But Tessler accepted the testimony of other witnesses that Suska had fallen in love with Rita Cunningham, 22 years his senior, and lived with her from 1998 until 2001, when they separated.
One of those witnesses was Aruna Mangal, another person found this week to be liable in the ICBC scam.
Mangal told Tessler she and her then-boyfriend had socialized many times with Suska and Cunningham and found them very loving.
Mangals story changed during the ICBC trial, in which she admitted that she lied under oath at Mr. Suskas immigration hearing.
She was dating Mr. Suska in October 2002 and admitted that she lied about Mr. Suskas marriage to assist him, Hinkson noted in his ruling.
Ms. Mangal was not a persuasive witness. She was tentative and awkward when she answered questions, and it is clear that she has an ongoing relationship with Mr. Suska.
A month after Tessler let Suska stay, he was involved in a staged accident with Mangal and two others in Surrey that led to almost $30,000 in ICBC payouts, which Hinkson has now ordered repaid.
Suska admitted in the ICBC case that he routinely lied under oath.
Everybody does, Suska said.
Tessler had no trouble believing Suskas explanation as to why he would claim the marriage that had allowed him to stay in Canada was false.
Suska told Tessler he had visited an immigration office in the Yukon in November 2001 with on-again, off-again girlfriend Brigitta Papp to inquire about her status in Canada.
In front of Papp, he said he paid Cunningham $3,000 to marry him, that he had only met her three times before their first meeting with immigration officials and that he had never lived with her or had sex with her.
He told Tessler he was just trying to save Papps feelings since they had dated in Hungary, travelled to Canada together in 1997, had a baby in 1999 and were reconciled and living together by 2001. Independent evidence confirms that Mr. Suska had not been telling immigration officer Leslie Rowe the truth when he attended at her office in November 2001, Tessler said in his decision. His explanation for telling immigration officer Rowe falsehoods is not inherently implausible and the quality and extent of his relationship with Ms. Cunningham has been confirmed by third parties.
People can lose their immigration in Canada for serious criminal convictions, but not on the basis of a civil court ruling.
But Suska himself raised the prospect of leaving Canada while being questioned by an ICBC official, according to Hinksons ruling. You plan to leave Canada after this lawsuit is over, dont you? Suska was asked.
He replied: I dont know. Who told you?
Suska said he had lied under oath repeatedly and would do it again. And you dont expect anyone to believe any of that, do you? Suska was asked.
No, he replied.
kbolan@vancouversun.com
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Your Comments
Joeblow
August 08, 2009 – 9:11 AM
Flag this as Inappropriate
Marriage is a Matrimony event!!!!!!!!! It is not an excuse for us to carry out our selfish wishes……….
Tina
August 07, 2009 – 11:21 PM
Flag this as Inappropriate
Due process is the only way that is the right way. Go back and start the correct process just as so many others do. I don't blame people for trying to get here in ANY kind of way, but it's not right and due process must be enforced. I thank God for my Country. I believe we live in the best Country in the World.
John
August 07, 2009 – 9:28 PM
Flag this as Inappropriate
Send this liar back to Hungry. We don't need scum like him.
CCW
August 07, 2009 – 8:24 PM
Flag this as Inappropriate
Take everything the liar has and throw him out of the country permanently without appeal!!!
