Major citizenship fraud inquiry in Canada

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MISSISSAUGA, Ontario, Feb. 1 (UPI) -- Canadian officials are investigating more than 300 people who claimed to have shared a home in Mississauga, Ontario, The (Toronto) Globe and Mail said Monday.

The newspaper said Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the alleged cases of citizenship fraud, a crime that Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney recently deemed a rising matter of concern in Canada.

"There are a number of ongoing police investigations into this practice of people abroad hiring consultants to establish for them evidence of residency in Canada, to meet the three-year residency requirement, when, in point of fact, they are often living abroad most or all of that time," Kenney said.

Kenney blamed other countries' varying pay scales based on nationality for the increase in citizenship fraud in Canada.

A building manager at Palestine House, which resides in the same building as the address in the fraud investigation, told the Globe and Mail that individuals received child benefit checks at the address despite the fact they did not live at the address.