Klage wirft Frau aus Winnipeg vor, 6 Millionen US-Dollar von einer gemeinnützigen Organisation genommen zu haben, um Urlaub zu finanzieren und TikTok-Münzen zu kaufen – First Nations National Guardians Network ist nach Vorwürfen nicht mehr für das Bundesprogramm zuständig
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/lawsuit-ngn-desjarlais-guardians-9.7159598
13 Kommentare
Damn these people are greedy.
What if she just took a fraction of that and didn’t make it so obvious, but I assume you’ve got to be pretty stupid to commit a crime this blatant and not try and hide it.
>The Indigenous Guardians program trains and employs people to carry out conservation and research work in their traditional lands.
CBC reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents that have been filed since March 20, including several affidavits, motion briefs and a forensic investigation by accounting firm KPMG.
The lawsuit said the network’s executive director went on medical leave in August 2025, making Desjarlais the sole staff member with day-to-day control over its finances.
Desjarlais used two of the network’s corporate credit cards to make $6.3 million in charges from that August until March 2026, the lawsuit alleges, with almost $5 million paid to TikTok alone.
PayPal transaction records revealed more than $750,000 US was sent directly to Jamaican musician Conrad Williams, the court documents state. The documents say Desjarlais and Williams may have had a romantic relationship.
I know we should be used to government grift at this point but good grief. How much money do we light on fire in this country.
People aren’t accustomed to having disposable income available to them. It’s like gambling addiction it starts off small but continues to landslide. They are usually not bad people but they really can’t have access to large amounts of money.
For those who are not from Canada wondering how on earth this could go unnoticed, in our country the progressives would have you believe that simple financial oversight=racism.
The rest of the nation knows this is happening wide scale. The FN band members know this is happening wide scale. When confronted with hard truths their leadership immediately cries „bigotry“ and government backs off because public image is all they care about, not actual governance.
We are cooked as a country.
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>Melanie Desjarlais, a Winnipeg resident and the First Nations National Guardians Network’s former financial director
Wonder what qualifications/certifications (if any) she had for the role of Financial Director?
Seems like she just jumped on misusing the funds the moment oversight went away, with little care about getting caught.
I mean she must have known she’d get caught, stealing roughly a million a month worth of gov’t money?
I mean dam if you’re going steal 6 mill why waste it on overpriced TikTok coins… what can you even do with that?
That’s why my taxes are so high. Sigh.
How are organizations allowed to manage this much money without simple safeguards in place? Double signatures. Expense/credit card bills reviewed and signed off by separate team or executive member, established expense and authorization (how much you can spend), etc in place? I was on the board of a much smaller (~$900K/year) non-profit and we had all of that in place.
From the [Winnipeg Free Press](https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/04/13/non-profit-accuses-former-financial-director-of-misappropriating-millions):
>A First Nations non-profit organization has accused a former employee of misappropriating $6.3 million in federal funds through an alleged money laundering scheme that saw her divert money to a Jamaican dance hall singer.
What the hell kind of hare-brained money laundering scheme is that?
Always shocking how many NGOs lack some of the basic controls on finances that even small businesses put in place.
The fact that massive payments to TikTok and PayPal went unnoticed for months is mind blowing.
TIL TikTok has coins, wont google it but I assume they are used to tip video makers?
As a financial controller that also worked in a non-profit, the lack of controls needed to let this happen is baffling. I also critique how governments often hand over funds to First Nation programs and organizations without doing proper background or due diligence checks or follow up.
When my organization need to request funding from the government for social housing programs, we need to go through a long and tedious approval process with questionnaires of how our programs will benefit First nations and reconciliation, even though our social housing program is not on First Nation land, nor are working with any First Nation partners. On the other hand, First Nation organizations get all the priority on funding and a expressway to get their funding approved by the government. This double standard needs to stop.