The City of Winnipeg has found more companies and people it claims were involved in a scheme to defraud taxpayers in the construction of Winnipeg’s police headquarters, according to court documents.

The city now wants to add those names to an ongoing lawsuit against dozens of other entities that it claims conspired to inflate and overcharge for work on the $214-million police headquarters project.

In a notice of motion filed on May 4, the city asked Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal for leave in order to amend its statement of claim in the suit, originally filed in 2020.

Already named in the suit are police HQ contractor Armik Babakhanians and his company, Caspian Construction, along with former City of Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl and dozens of other entities involved in the project.

Joyal ruled in March that Sheegl accepted a $327,200 bribe from Babakhanians as part of that project, which saw the city purchase a Canada Post warehouse and office complex and convert it into the new home for the Winnipeg Police Service.

Earlier this month, the judge ordered the former CAO to pay damages as part of a $1.1M judgment. Sheegl’s lawyer says he plans to appeal.

In its May 4 court filings, the city said it gathered new evidence in April 2021 from the RCMP, which collected data from Caspian computer servers.

The city alleges in the new filings that police HQ subcontractor John Garcea, his wife, Mabel, and companies controlled by the Garceas defrauded the city through inflated invoices, billings for work that was not conducted at all, and billings for work that was entirely unrelated to the police HQ project.

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