Air Canada is sued after thieves stole $17M in gold and cash

Air Canada is facing allegations of ‘negligence’ following a $17 million gold heist near the nation’s busiest airport. The airline is being sued by Brink’s, a money management firm, after allegedly allowing thieves to take off with almost 900 pounds in gold and $1.9 million in banknotes in April. According to the reported lawsuit, Air Canada failed to place adequate security on the valuable shipment, with the daring criminals allegedly able to swipe the loot by using fake documentation.

The unsolved crime has raised questions over the security apparatus in place for high-value shipments, and it became the largest gold theft since $30 million was stolen by thieves disguised as police in July 2019 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Brink’s lawsuit was filed on October 6 in the Federal Court of Canada, noting that the firm was hired by Swiss bank Raiffeisen Schweiz Genossenschaft to transport the cargo for precious metals refinery Valcambi SA on April 17.

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The company subsequently hired Air Canada to move the gold and cash from Zurich to Toronto, before it was moved from Pearson International Airport to a Toronto warehouse at shortly before 6pm. Less than an hour after the depot received the gold, a still-unidentified thief used fraudulent documents to pick it up. According to the lawsuit, ‘no security protocols or features were in place to monitor, restrict or otherwise regulate the unidentified individual’s access to the facilities.’ After the person pulled off the heist, cops were left scrambling for answers. So far, ‘there have been no arrests or convictions and the shipments have not been recovered,’ the lawsuit says.

Canadian authorities insist they are still looking into the crime, with the investigation described as ‘very active’ by Peel Regional Police spokesperson Aruna Aundhia. ‘Information will be released when investigators believe it will not interfere with the investigation’s integrity,’ they said, in a statement to Fortune . Air Canada did not immediately respond to a request for comment when contacted by DailyMail.com. Brink’s is seeking $13.5 million Swiss Francs to compensate for the missing gold, $1.9 million for the stolen cash, and additional costs from Air Canada.

With no arrests in the months since it was reported at the time by the Toronto Sun that organized criminal gangs may have been behind the theft. The heist in Canada became the largest such crime since thieves posing as police officers pulled off a huge $30 million robbery in Brazil in 2019. The suspects used fake police uniforms to enter Guarulhos airport in Sao Paulo to target a trove of gold as it was being transported to New York and Zurich. In the space of less than three minutes, eight armed men disguised as agents who had arrived in two fake police vans stole the gold without firing a shot.

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