Six 'persons of interest' identified in raids on Edmonton properties, police say

Notorious Edmonton landlord Abdullah Shah and five others are considered persons of interest in an investigation that led the Canada Revenue Agency and Edmonton police to raid several properties across the city last week, police say.

Warrants executed on July 24 were related to allegations of laundering the proceeds of crime, trafficking controlled substances, participation in a criminal organization, tax evasion, obtaining credit by false pretences and trafficking the proceeds of crime, a spokesperson for Edmonton police said.

• Listen to all five episodes of our podcast Slumtown for freewherever you get your podcasts or at cbc.ca/Slumtown

Five others who are persons of interest in the investigation are Shairose Esmail, Jennifer Vuong, Ralph Hoffman, Sarah Fassman and Harkamaljit Kahlon, also known as Tony Kahlon or Tony Singh, police said.

The raids included Shah's family home and four buildings in McCauley with ties to the notorious landlord, also known as Carmen Pervez.

No charges have been laid and police have not yet publicly identified any suspects.

• Police, CRA raid Edmonton properties linked to alleged 'criminal organization'

One of the properties, at 9317-19 111th Avenue, is co-owned by Hoffman along with a numbered company, documents show. That same property was also the subject of a police raid in 2016. In that raid, police seized a large quantity of drugs, including two pounds of methamphetamine.

Shah, Vuong and Fassman were all charged in connection to the 2016 raid. The charges were dropped after a judge found the search warrants related to the raid contained "material errors."

Shah, Fassman and Esmail were also charged in 2016 for violations of Alberta's Health Act relating to rental properties in Edmonton. The charges were later dropped because it took longer than 18 months for the case to go to trial.

Kahlon and Shah were charged in 2005 in a $30-million mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 100 properties. Shah pleaded guilty to 54 counts of fraud. He was sentenced in 2008 to six years in prison, and given four years of credit for time served in pretrial custody.

Kahlon pleaded guilty to 12 counts of fraud and was sentenced to three years.

Shah is a subject of a five-part podcast from CBC Edmonton called Slumtown, which investigated problem properties in the inner city.

The podcast revealed that Shah was linked to dozens of problem properties via associates and numbered companies.

Esmail and Fassman declined to comment for this story through their lawyers.

Shah's lawyer Erika Norheim referred to a statement she had previously made on his behalf, indicating Shah is confident he has not committed any potential offences related to the investigation, and that he is happy to assist authorities.

CBC has reached out to Hoffman, Vuong and Kahlon through their lawyersbut has yet to receive a response.