This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.
Read this story in Tagalog. / Basahin ang artikulo na ito sa Tagalog.
For more than a decade, Jeanett Moskito has sold the Canadian dream.
Her company’s social media account is plastered with hundreds of photos and videos of beaming foreign workers, each holding a work permit — their golden ticket to building a new life in Canada.
Moskito — who is not a lawyer or an immigration consultant — is also in the pictures. As a self-styled recruiter, she helps newcomers find jobs in Canada through her two companies Link4Staff and Berderald Consulting.
The Filipino woman appears as a benevolent figure, smiling and shaking hands with clients, congratulating them publicly in uplifting posts like, “This achievement was possible because of your positive thinking and trust.”
But CBC News found that Moskito has frequently abused that trust.
A months-long investigation reveals she is one of the Ontario Ministry of Labour’s most notorious repeat offenders, caught 35 times taking payments from dozens of foreign workers in exchange for finding them jobs — which is illegal across Canada.
So far, Moskito’s punishment has been to pay back the money she took illegally — a total of about $200,000 — along with paying a handful of ministry-imposed $250 fines.
Seven former clients have also taken her to small claims court, alleging she charged illegal fees and refused to refund them when confronted.
Philippines consulates in Canada and Israel have even issued warnings against using her services, urging “all our kababayan [fellow citizens] to refrain from dealing with Ms. Moskito and her associated entities who ask for excessive fees in exchange for fraudulent job offers.”
Yet the 52-year-old continues to be open for business — posting ads on the Government of Canada’s official job bank as recently as October.
Moskito did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
A CBC News investigation has revealed that despite being caught charging illegal fees to foreign workers 35 times, recruiter Jeanett Moskito and her companies Link4Staff and Berderald Consulting continue to operate.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have recently promised to target “bad actors” in immigration.
But advocates for migrant workers, immigration lawyers and Moskito’s victims say her scheme is a perfect example of Canada’s lack of oversight when it comes to immigration representatives and its failure to protect foreign workers.
“I believe that the system we have in place allows people to be exploited,” said labour lawyer John No, who has represented seven clients in labour cases against Moskito since 2016.
“We can’t underemphasize the emotional, mental and physical toll it has on the victims.”
‘Everything’s a lie’
CBC News spoke with 11 of Moskito’s former clients, who tell a common story: she promised them legal jobs and, often, a path to permanent residence for a fee typically ranging from $2,000 to $9,000.
Some told CBC that after they paid, the jobs never materialized and Moskito eventually stopped answering their messages. Others said she found them jobs, but they never received their work permit — so they aren’t sure if they were working legally or not.
Four said the recruiter “scammed” them. That includes John Gabriel Quizo, who wishes he had never met Moskito.
He’s one of five former clients who have filed complaints against Moskito and her companies with the Ontario Labour Ministry since July.
“Everything’s a lie,” said Quizo, wiping away tears as he recounted his encounters with her. CBC spoke to him in a downtown Toronto men’s shelter where he’s been living for the last five months.
“I feel lots of struggle, lots of problems, lots of heartache here.”
The 36-year-old Filipino national moved to Canada in December 2022 to complete a one-year hotel and restaurant management program at Centennial College in Scarborough, Ont., in the hopes of building a better life for his family, including his 11-year-old son Nathaniel, who stayed back home.
“It was a dream … to have a job here, study here and then eventually maybe bring my family here [to] Canada and give a future for my son,” Quizo said.
When a classmate introduced him to Moskito, he got excited when she told him he could work and earn money for his family right away.
“I [thought] that it was legit,” Quizo said, especially when he learned that his friend had already secured work.
For a fee of about $6,000, Moskito said she’d find Quizo a full-time job reserved for temporary foreign workers, complete with a valid work permit. Quizo said Moskito was evasive when he asked about the legality of her services.
“What do you want to do? Work? Or to study?” he says she asked him in response to his questions about whether he could legally transition from being an international student to full-time work.
“She told me, ‘Do you know the meaning of illegal and legal?’ I was confused because I was trying to ask her if it is legal,” he said.
He further alleges Moskito told him the work would guarantee him an eventual permanent residence — a status that, in reality, is never guaranteed.
Quizo dropped out of college and took Moskito’s offer, paying half the fee upfront — using the tuition money his family spent years saving in the Philippines.
Moskito soon came through on the first part of her promise — and Quizo began working as a housekeeper for two hotels owned by Hoco Hotels in Stratford, Ont. But after seven months of cleaning hotel rooms, Quizo’s name was removed from the hotel’s work schedule. His student visa expired shortly after.
“He said his work permit was expiring,” said Tushar Roy, CEO of Hoco Hotels. “And we said, ‘OK, if your work permit’s expiring, we can’t keep you on.'”
John Gabriel Quizo, 36, came to Canada to study and build a new life for his family. But after allegedly being sold a false promise of a work permit by Toronto recruiter Jeanett Moskito and her company Berderald Consulting, he finds himself jobless, in debt and unable to support his 11-year-old son.
Moskito never came through on her promise of a new work permit for Quizo.
The hotel owner remembers hearing another employee had paid Moskito as much as $10,000 for their job. “I was not very happy with it. I thought it was just recruiting.”
Now unable to work legally, Quizo is homeless and lives in a men’s shelter. He said he borrowed a lot of money to survive and is too broke and ashamed to fly back home.
“I cannot pay back the debt. I can’t find a job. I cannot even support my son,” he said.
Harsher penalties not applied: lawyers
CBC shared its research with two Filipino Canadian immigration lawyers, who both agreed the case highlights the need for better oversight and stricter penalties for job recruiters who target foreign workers.
Because recruiters aren’t regulated like immigration lawyers and consultants, there are fewer avenues to pursue accountability. As a result, many former clients file Ministry of Labour complaints to get their money back.
More than half of the 61 orders to repay illegal recruitment fees issued by the province over the past four years are linked to Moskito’s companies, making her the recruiter with the most violations for that offence in Ontario.
Filipino Canadian lawyer Jake Aguilar says the consequences Moskito has faced so far haven’t been enough of a deterrent.
“You get a violation, you pay, that’s it. You can do it again. You can do it as often as you want — as long as you pay for the penalty, there’s no limit,” he said.
A $250 fee was added as a penalty in only seven cases against Moskito.
“It’s like a parking ticket,” said Aguilar. “[People like Moskito] have no fear. As you can see, they’ve been doing it even if they get these penalties.”
Lawyer Jake Aguilar says the fines issued to Jeanett Moskito and her company for charging illegal recruitment fees are too small to discourage people like her from contravening provincial labour law. ‘The penalty should be more than enough to deter you,’ he said.
Both lawyers stressed the Ministry of Labour can pursue criminal charges for repeat offenders, which can come with a $50,000 fine and up to a year in prison.
“I do not know why the ministry [isn’t] pursuing the criminal aspect,” said Saludares.
Filipino community organization Migrante Ontario claims Moskito’s victims number in the “hundreds” and has criticized authorities’ “lack of timely and punitive response.”
CBC News asked the Ministry of Labour why it has not recommended any criminal charges against Moskito and whether it would consider regulating recruiters who interact with foreign nationals the way British Columbia does.
The ministry did not answer CBC’s questions, but pointed out that its new Working for Workers Act introduced changes and more will come, including “fines, multi-year bans and lifetime bans, and naming and shaming dishonest immigration representatives.”
“Our government significantly enhanced enforcement tools and increased penalties,” wrote Michel Figueredo, press secretary to Minister of Labour David Piccini, in an email statement. “This sends a clear message — Ontario will not tolerate bad actors.”
Eighty-nine per cent of newcomers to Canada — and 98 per cent of Filipino newcomers — want to see the Canadian government take steps to better regulate immigration representatives, according to a recent CBC survey conducted by Pollara.
In the meantime, Angelica Escalona, the Philippine consul general in Toronto, says her office is consolidating complaints and considering legal action against Moskito in consultation with the Philippine government.
In an April 2019 press conference, migrant workers who are part of a campaign called Justice for Mushroom 4 alleged they were sold false promises for thousands of dollars by the recruitment agency Link4Staff. The company contested the claims.
‘I hope she goes to jail’
CBC News asked Jeanett Moskito multiple times for an interview to comment on these allegations, but did not receive a response at this time.
A person who picked up the office line at Link4Staff/Berderald hung up seconds into a call.
In the past, Moskito has argued to the labour board that the fees paid by clients were for immigration applications, not recruitment services, despite both of her companies advertising recruitment services.
Meanwhile, Quizo is waiting for his day in court and hoping Moskito will be punished to the full extent of the law.
Like many, he’s also angry that Moskito — who is Filipina herself — took advantage of the trust of the community.
“I hope she goes to jail,” he said. “She ruined many dreams and the lives of families who believed in her false promises.”
