HOW MUCH IS JIM BROWN "IN" FOR?
The answer is: I don’t know, but we can guess. Not very much, probably.
First of all, don’t ever tell the Fraud Squad that you think your alleged crook is "in" for X thousand dollars. The Fraud Squad will "have your hide", and demand to know how you know that. However, it is possible to estimate how much from contracts and other factors.
All Research "observers" figured that the CARIAD contracts were Jim Brown ‘s first real attempts at scamming. Previous to the CARIAD TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) contracts, Jim Brown had apparently sent $500,000 to two lesser-known Canadian universities … "to warm up", as one advisor put it. Nobody was suspecting fraud in conjunction with these two institutions … its hard to scam a university.
Then Jim Brown sent a total of about $300,000 to CARIAD for TEM work. Of this, let us suppose half went in report writing and TEM expenses; then suppose Jim Brown split the rest with CARIAD, giving Jim $75,000. If Jim Brown hadn’t been so "obnoxious" about his activities, he would probably have managed to scam a lot more before detection.
STAGE 2. Internal "Mismanagement, Fraud and Corruption"
Apparently, the Fraud Squad automatically place charges for fraud above $100,000 (the figure for 1992. The 1999 figure is very different, about $1,000,000), and Jim Brown was probably below this level.
Q1: How are we supposed to know what Jim Brown is really in for? We aren’t, and we can’t.
Q2: Are members of the public supposed to make a judgment call on whether or not we should report suspected fraud based on how much we think is "in" there? Apparently not, after all, how can we?
Q3: Is criminal fraud up to $100k (or $1,000,000) acceptable in Ontario? Or is this a special case for Ontario Hydro Managers? You tell me. Read the Maclean’s article of July 28th, 1997 on the Fraud Squad. They are the most overworked police force in Canada, and can’t handle most of their cases. The threshold level for charges has risen dramatically, probably along with white collar crime in Toronto. This article by Paul Palango very accurately describes the Fraud Squad’s approach with respect to Hydro-gate.