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According to the judge’s decision finding him guilty, Abdulle either personally sponsored or acted as the spokesman in 170 sponsorship applications seeking to bring 528 refugees to Canada. Abdulle, a former refugee, was the group leader and sponsor on 131 of those applications, the group representative on 32 applications and was involved in or didn’t deny his involvement in the other seven.

Thirty-seven of his sponsorships were successful, although the judge hearing the case said there was no evidence any of those refugees posed a danger to Canada. Each were separately screened by visa officers over a process that took up to three years and deemed not to be a threat, said Ontario Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin.

“There was no evidence that any of these refugees who were accepted were criminals or posed security risks,” wrote Beaudoin in a decision finding the 54-year-old Abdulle guilty of seven charges in November 2015.

However, two of the refugees sponsored by Abdulle’s groups testified they paid him $20,000 in exchange for the sponsorships for their relatives or themselves.

What the court decision didn’t explain was how Abdulle was involved so prominently in as many applications as he was before coming under any sort of scrutiny by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Court heard his applications were rife with spelling errors, included potential sponsors who themselves were refugees sponsored by Abdulle only a year earlier, had incorrect phone numbers and addresses, and referenced bank accounts that didn’t exist.