York Regional Police (YRP) say 15 people are facing a combined slate of fraud\u2011related charges after an investigation uncovered an organized scheme that allegedly siphoned nearly $100,000 from a regional program designed to help people experiencing homelessness.<\/p>\n
The probe \u2014 dubbed Project Great One \u2014 began in April 2025 after York Region staff flagged suspicious applications submitted to the Homeless Prevention Program (HPP), a service intended for residents who are homeless or at risk and not receiving other forms of social assistance.<\/p>\n
A review found numerous applications containing falsified information, with investigators determining that approximately $99,600 had been fraudulently claimed between January and December 2024.<\/p>\n
Police say the suspects acted in a coordinated manner, prompting officers to execute search warrants at 12 homes and on 10 vehicles across the GTA. Fifteen people have now been charged.<\/p>\n
At the centre of the investigation, police allege, is 38\u2011year\u2011old Isaac Oppong of Vaughan, identified as the principal suspect. According to investigators, Oppong served as a pastor at Miracle Arena for All Nations from 2018 until 2025 and is believed to have used his position to recruit others into the scheme.<\/p>\n
Oppong faces charges including fraud, six counts of identity fraud, laundering proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.<\/p>\n
The 14 others charged \u2014 from Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Burlington, Richmond Hill, Ajax and St. Catharines \u2014 face various combinations of fraud, identity fraud, laundering proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, false pretence and use of forged documents.<\/p>\n
Police say the investigation remains active and believe additional victims or participants may still be unidentified. They are urging anyone with information to come forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"York Regional Police (YRP) say 15 people are facing a combined slate of fraud\u2011related charges after an investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-603745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}