A Royal Bank of Canada banking adviser who spent months dipping into the savings of a vulnerable 87-year-old client and an estate to feed her gambling addiction faces up to two years in prison. Karim Skakni, however, denies having wanted to enrich himself by this fraud of $235,000.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“I just saw an opportunity without even thinking for a second. I simply helped myself to what was in front of me. This money was completely squandered by the game, “said the fraudster during the observations on the sentence, on April 4, at the Montreal courthouse. The 37-year-old pleaded guilty to a fraud charge in July 2021.
In 2016, Karim Skakni had been a banking advisor for six years at the Royal Bank of Canada. He had only one “single criterion” to target his victims: those who “did not follow up”, he confessed in court. This is how he cashed in seven investments of approximately $100,000 belonging to a client in her eighties, now deceased. He pocketed this sum by making about fifty small withdrawals over the months.
Suspicious withdrawals
It was two suspicious withdrawals of $1,000 and $2,200 that alerted the victim’s daughter in September 2016. Worried that her mother was being abused, she contacted Karim Skakni at the Sherbrooke Street branch, but he did not call her back. A few days later, the fraudster landed at the victim’s house and confessed his crimes.
To repay $91,000 to the victim, the financial adviser used the account of the estate of another bank client, who had died three months earlier.
Following his confession, Karim Skakni never returned to the bank, which fired him for theft in February 2017.
For this $235,000 fraud, the sentence should be between 18 and 24 months in detention, taking into account the aggravating factors, according to the prosecution. “We are talking about more than one client, an attempt to cover up by taking money from another client and a breach of trust against an elderly person. He is an employee of a bank, he enjoys a certain credibility, ”pleaded the Crown prosecutor Mand Emily Robert.
In addition, Karim Skakni’s crime demonstrates “planning”, since he chose clients with an “easier profile”, argued Ms.and Robert, who asks to impose a reimbursement order on the fraudster.
“He lost everything”, pleads the defense
The defense is asking for 90 days in prison to be served on weekends, along with three years’ probation, in order to allow him to keep his job. To justify this lenient sentence, Mr.and Mathieu Bédard insists on the gambling problems of his client, who has been following therapy since.
“He is a young individual, who has no criminal record, who made a mistake, who confessed his fault, who says he is ready to reimburse his victim. He lost everything. He lost his job, he lost his career,” Ms.and Bedard.
PHOTO MARTIN TREMBLAY, THE PRESS
Karim Skakni and his lawyer, Mr.and Mathieu Bedard
“Our financial adviser at the bank has access to a lot of things about our life, our money. The bond of trust must be strong, ”commented Judge Alexandre Dalmau during the pleadings.
Karim Skakni swears he never wanted to keep the money to get rich. If he stole this hoard, it was because he wanted to “recover a cushion” by playing at the casino, then redeposit the funds, neither seen nor known. “I was sucked into a vicious spiral,” he insists. For several years, he found himself penniless by dint of flaming his pay at the casino.
“It was an addiction that drove me. I only lived for this. I only breathed for that. I was just thinking about that. I had schedules to play. I was caught in this circle. This spiral, it took me a long time to get out of it. It prevented me from thinking logically, when these are not values that I have in me, ”he testified.
Karim Skakni says he overcame his gambling problem through therapy. He adds that he is “corroded from within” by guilt. He experiences “deep regrets”, to the point of having difficulty “looking in the mirror”. “I sincerely apologize for what I did,” he said.
Before his disciplinary committee, Karim Skakni was permanently struck off by the Chamber of Financial Security in June 2021 for having appropriated sums belonging to four clients. In particular, he stole $2,600 from a 74-year-old woman who resided in the United States.
The judge will hand down his sentence next June.