Customers who went to the Cochrane Bottle Depot in the last five years were not victims of the $16 million fraud allegation according to the Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corporation (ABCRC).
The corporation issued statements of claim against three bottle depots in southern Alberta, including the Cochrane Bottle Depot Ltd., High River Bottle Depot Inc, and Strathmore Bottle Depot Ltd.
“As far as we are aware, the employees properly refunded the customers,” said Guy West, president of ABCRC.
West explained that the issue has been ongoing for the past five years.
“We identified that there was an issue a couple of years ago and started conducting an internal investigation,” West said.
The statement of claim alleges that several of ABCRC’s employees conspired with the three depots to misappropriate approximately $16 million. Since the statement of claim has been issued nine employees have been terminated and three employees disciplined.
“I cannot go too much into detail, as this is an active case before the courts,” West said.
The corporation stated in a press release that the Court of Queen’s Bench proceedings are underway.
