A woman from Ontario was convicted of defrauding newcomers to Canada.

Maneet 'Mani' Malhotra, a businesswoman behind NAMI Immigration, is required to pay $148,000 in restitution to the victims and received an 18-month prison sentence, including six months of house arrest.

The Canada Border Services Agency also began investigating her in 2019 after a report from the Alberta Temporary Foreign Worker Advisory Office.

The Canada Border Services Agency found that Malhotra received $30,000 from one client and $45,000 from another client for immigration services that were later discovered to be fraudulent, including fake job offers and forged documents.

Investigators from the Canada Border Services Agency also found other victims of the woman.

She was not a registered immigration consultant or a practicing lawyer and pleaded guilty to charging for immigration services without legal authorization to do so in Edmonton on April 8.