Why the police have charged Raymond Drouin

A North Bay man has been charged with fraud over $5,000 after allegedly siphoning off $945,000 from his employer.

The North Bay Police Service arrested Raymond Drouin last Thursday, stating he’d admitted the transgression to officials of Comsatec Inc., the energy management company in Callander he’d worked for since 1996.

Comsatec operations manager Paul Waque Jr. declined comment but did forward a copy of a memo sent to the firm’s customers.

“After learning about the unauthorized withdrawal of money from Comsatec’s account, we immediately initiated an independent audit of our books and bank records,” the memo stated.

“Comsatec confirmed that Mr. Drouin had, in fact, removed funds from our account without authorization.
As a result of the independent audit it was concluded that our customer accounts were unaffected.

We wish to assure you that Comsatec remains financially healthy and that the actions of Mr. Drouin have not impaired Comsatec's ability to conduct business.”

The memo states Comsatec employees are aware of the issue, “and positive steps were taken to eliminate the opportunity for such actions in the future.”

Drouin had been a bookkeeper for Comsatec, said Det. Cst. Paul Brewer, of the police service’s criminal investigations section.

Drouin has been granted bail and makes his next court appearance Nov. 4.

For more information on Comsatec click here.