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Canada’s embassy in Haiti was overrun by a criminal organization after more than a dozen locals hired to work at the diplomatic mission in Port-au-Prince swindled more than $1.7 million through numerous schemes and frauds, internal investigation reports reveal.

An internal probe of the embassy’s finances and staffing from 2015 to 2016 uncovered systematic fabrication of documents, fraudulent bills, forged signatures, misdirected cheques, secret commissions and personal use of Canada’s diplomatic license plates.

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A Canadian court has now branded the local embassy employees a criminal organization.

The government revealed the amount of the loss last year but the National Post has learned new details of the extent of the frauds. Thirteen locally hired staff were implicated in the schemes and fired after longstanding swindles were revealed; five Canadian employees were disciplined and one was fired; another local worker fled to Canada, where he applied for refugee status.