Molson Coors Rocked by Alleged Multi-Million Dollar Fraud Scheme
So here’s what’s unfolding right now with Molson Coors in Canada — and it’s a story that sounds like it was pulled straight out of a corporate thriller. According to recently filed court documents, the company says it uncovered a “complex scheme” that siphoned off at least $9 million since 2021. And at the center of it all is the company’s former director of sales, Frank Ivankovic.
What Molson Coors describes is a long-running setup built on fraudulent invoices, secret payments, and shell companies that appeared to be offering legitimate services. The lawsuit claims Ivankovic used his authority inside the company to approve invoices from two outside firms — Letz Go Consulting and a numbered Ontario company tied to the Firkin pub chain. These companies were controlled by Firkin Hospitality Group president Larry Isaacs and his wife. The money paid out by Molson Coors, according to the claim, was then secretly routed back to Ivankovic and his wife.
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The court filings say this didn’t happen once or twice — it became a pattern. Ivankovic is alleged to have received 63 separate payments totaling more than $3.6 million, representing half of what Letz Go invoiced the company. The invoices themselves were framed as expenses for things like “event planning,” even though investigators now say the companies had no real operations matching what they billed for.
It’s also being alleged that Ivankovic didn’t act alone. Molson Coors says he enlisted two other employees, including former national sales account manager Michael Conforti, who allegedly issued fake purchase orders and received secret payments of his own. All of this, according to the lawsuit, was confined to the Canadian side of Molson Coors’ business.
The trigger for the investigation came from something as simple as a bank inquiry. Molson Coors discovered an email from Ivankovic’s bank asking him about the source of deposits exceeding $276,000 from the shell companies. That single question led investigators to a spreadsheet in his email that appeared to track fraudulent payments, opening the door to what Molson Coors now says was a multi-year operation.
Also included in the lawsuit are claims that payments were directed to a company controlled by Ivankovic’s wife — a chiropractor with no known consulting background — and even to the Mississauga Golf and Country Club to cover his membership fees.
None of the allegations have been proven in court, and Isaacs and his wife “strenuously deny” the claims. Ivankovic and Conforti resigned in October while under investigation. Meanwhile, Molson Coors says it is determined to recover every dollar and prevent any assets from being moved until the case plays out. According to the internal memo sent to employees, the company is both disappointed and committed to pursuing all legal avenues to reclaim the stolen funds.
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