22-year-old man sentenced for role in extortion scheme targeting Edmonton homebuilders

A 22-year-old man has pleaded guilty for his role in a series of extortions and arsons targeting homebuilders who are members of Edmonton’s South Asian community.

After pleading guilty, Parminder Singh was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison on Tuesday for his role in a criminal scheme that has been the subject of an investigation conducted by the Edmonton Police Service. The criminal probe has been dubbed Project Gaslight.

That sentence was put forward jointly by Crown prosecutor Breena Smith and defence lawyer Brian Baresh who represented Singh.

A series of violent extortions, arsons and drive-by shootings began in Edmonton in October 2023. Multiple developers saw their properties burned in the wake of receiving messages telling them to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars if they wanted to avoid violence or property damage.

Singh is the fifth person to be found guilty in the criminal conspiracy. According to an agreed statement of facts, he was considered to be a "mid- to high-level member" of the group involved in the scheme.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to obtain money or property using threats or violence, committing crimes on behalf of a criminal organization, discharging a firearm at a residence and pointing a firearm at an Edmonton police officer.

Singh had no direct contact with any of the extortion victims but was aware other members of the criminal organization he was involved with were actively extorting them, according to an agreed statement of facts.

On Oct. 19, 2023, Singh was arrested after firing nine shots at the residence of one of the targeted developers.

Earlier that day, Harmeet Billing, owner of Billing Homes, received phone calls over WhatsApp from a caller demanding $500,000. They threatened to kill Billing and his family if he did not pay. The caller also threatened to burn down Billing’s home.

Billing’s neighbour and business associate Sandeep Mann, president of  Victory Homes, lived in the same neighbourhood in southeast Edmonton.

Mann also received the calls but did not pick up as he did not recognize the numbers.

On the evening of the shooting, Sgt. Ryan Ferry was the attending police officer and spoke with both Billing and Mann after they received the calls.

As Ferry was returning to his unmarked police vehicle, he saw a car pull up to Billing’s home and someone fire nine shots at the residence.

Ferry pursued the car and Singh eventually stopped, got out of the car and pointed his gun at Ferry.

Singh did not fire, however, and then ran away on foot, after which he was arrested.

While looking for evidence, EPS officers found a restricted firearm with a defaced serial number, and forensic analysis confirmed casings found at Billing’s home were from the gun.

Singh admitted in court on Tuesday that with the actions he took he was actively participating in extortion, which he said was directed by a criminal organization.

Justice John Henderson said the severity of the offences was too great to overlook, despite concerns raised by Baresh over the possibility of deportation, which could extend to Singh’s family who all came to Canada in 2018.

Henderson said a key mitigating factor in the case was Singh pleading guilty to the charges, sparing the justice system from the resources needed to take the case to trial.

The admission of guilt also means the extortion victims were not required to testify and recount traumatic experiences.

“The reality is that the aggravating factors far outweigh the mitigating factors,” Henderson said.

“Certainly [deportation] is a collateral consequence, but there's very little that I can do about that.”

Singh’s conviction is the most recent in connection with EPS’ Project Gaslight investigation.

Police say they believe Maninder Dhaliwal is the person who has been orchestrating the scheme and that he has been doing so from Dubai. He is the subject of an extradition request to face charges in Canada.