Lataj appears to enjoy the trappings of wealth in Toronto, while also donating to causes back in his native Kosovo. Social media posts and news clippings indicate he has given at least 200,000 euros ($235,000) to community facilities in his homeland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reporters could not find evidence of his profession other than two firms that report very little activity, including one that invested in a junior mining company. In police files from Canada, his occupation is listed as \u201cunknown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooklyn Bank Burglary \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n
Lataj has led a colourful life across the Atlantic since leaving Kosovo at some point in the 1980s. Immigration case files show Lataj entered the U.S. illegally in 1986. He was later placed into deportation proceedings, but granted voluntary departure instead of being forcibly removed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Court records show that he failed in an asylum claim in 1987, but he remained in the U.S. until the appeal process was exhausted, and racked up a criminal record there. Immigration records reveal that Lataj has been convicted of several charges in the U.S., including a 2001 burglary case.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to legal documents from the burglary case, a court found that Lataj had become involved with a group of emigres from the former Yugoslavia and Albania who had allegedly \u201cengaged in and planned several commercial and bank burglaries in the New York area.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lataj was arrested and convicted for the burglary of a Brooklyn bank after police found the roof was breached with cutting tools. Lataj was caught trying to flee in his Cadillac, which featured heavily in police surveillance reports, and he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After being released in March 2003, Lataj was once more slated for deportation to Kosovo, which was eventually ordered in 2009. As part of his appeals process, Lataj had argued to U.S. officials that deportation would put him at risk, because of a \u201cblood feud\u201d his family was involved in back home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n