Organized crime money launderer brought down by $10M silver heist, Mississauga mansion

Isidor Subotic, director of an accounting firm, found guilty of criminal offenses including money laundering, tobacco sales, and drug possession. Faces sentencing in September.

From the outside looking in, Isidor “Izzy” Subotic looked like a pretty regular guy, the director of a small, family-run accounting firm who lived in a condo and had a clean criminal record. His rejection of the flash-and-dash of some of his associates in favour of behind-the-scenes work in a variety of criminal ventures was on full display during his criminal trial. In one wiretap conversation with a friend, he can be heard talking about his reaction to his co-conspirator wanting to leave his Lamborghini at his home.

When Giovanni “John” Raimondi asked to park his luxury vehicle beside that of Subotic, he told one friend, he lashed out. “I told him get this s—- Lambo out of here,” court documents show he told a friend. “I don’t want to be seen with you, I don’t want to associate with you, I don’t want to have anything to f—-ing do with you ...

You think they’re not eyeballing you up there?” He was right to be concerned, police were watching. And now, the anonymity he worked so hard to maintain is in tatters.

Subotic has been found guilty of laundering the proceeds of crime and possession of cannabis for the purpose of distribution. He will be sentenced in a few months. The trial showed in granular detail how police built a case against the 56-year-old, getting access to banking documents, detailed, handwritten notebooks, text messages and wiretapped phone calls with friends, during which he spilled the beans on many of his criminal behaviours.

Subotic came onto police radar during an illegal tobacco investigation that featured extensive wiretapping. In conversations played in court, Subotic told a friend, Lolita, how he and Raimondi had gone into business together, in what appeared to be the shrewd criminal scheme. “I went in (on) one reserve thing with him, under the condition that whatever is made on the reserve stays on the reserve,” he said in a wiretapped conversation about making illegal cigarettes on a Native reserve.

He further remarked how profitable the venture was for the pair. “It’s a good business, even on the reserve, like you know the guy could make four or five hundred a month,” he said. In a separate recorded conversation, also played in court, Raimondi can be heard telling a friend just how good this type of business could be.

“I have two factories on the reserve,” he said, later saying police aren’t even allowed on the reserve. “I got a full compound you can’t even look into it ... You either need a ... helicopter or a f—-ing drone to look inside.”

However, Subotic said Raimondi’s desire for wealth eventually got the better of his good judgment. In June 2020, Raimondi was charged with tobacco related offences as part of the OPP’s Project Cairnes, an extensive cross-border investigation in Ontario, Quebec and B.C. that focused on contraband tobacco and illegal cannabis. During the two-year investigation, a transport trailer loaded with millions of contraband cigarettes made at a Six Nations’ factory was tracked on its way to B.C. before another shipment of illegal weed came back.

Some of Raimondi’s co-accused were charged with conspiracy to commit murder and drug trafficking. And the OPP said Raimondi and his co-accused are closely associated with members of traditional organized crime. In another court case related to the high-profile kidnapping of a 14-year-old, Raimondi was referred to as a “multiple-kilogram level” drug trafficker.

The court heard how the high-profile Toronto kidnapping was a plot to recover 90 kg of cocaine stolen by the boy’s half brother. Subotic would explain to his friend, Raimondi eventually lost control of the business. “They closed the reserve, they wouldn’t allow anybody in or out,” he said.

Raimondi was fined $500,000 for his crimes. Raimondi’s problems did not end there. He also owed Subotic money, so he developed a plan to pay him back.

“He still owes me money that’s why I did the real estate thing with him cuz that’s the only way I’m gonna get my money from him,” Subotic said in the same conversation with Lolita. “He talked me into going (and) building a house in Mississauga.” Subotic added that he agreed to the deal under one strict condition, he wanted full control.

The court heard how the pair bought land on Mississauga Road, built a house on it with a Vaughan builder named Roy Segal, before attempting to “flip it” all with laundered proceeds from Raimondi’s tobacco sales, court documents say. According to Subotic’s records, kept on handwritten documents found inside his vehicle, almost $1 million made its way through the property, which was eventually listed under his son’s name. The deal would also see Subotic’s then lawyer, Timothy Kinnaird, receive a bank draft in the amount of $125,000 from Raimondi’s wife, court documents show.

He was later disbarred for participating in fraudulent mortgage transactions. In January 2022, Raimondi was killed in a hail of bullets in a still unsolved case at his home at Palace Pier, in Etobicoke. It wasn’t only the Mississauga Road property that Subotic was laundering money in relation to.

In January 2020, a shipping container with 18,000 kg of Korean silver bullion worth $10 million was stolen at the port of Montreal, according to police. The Crown showed evidence that Subotic had an image of a silver bar with identifiers linking it to the Korean shipment. He later told someone named “Dave” that he thought he sold 300 bars, later discussing removing serial numbers and having it smelted down, court documents show.

In one conversation with his brother Nenad, he wrote about just how heavy the one silver ingot he was found to have been in possession of, was to lift. He would later tell him “silver bricks” were “available.” In another conversation to a friend, he explained he just had to figure out how to ship it, also saying he sold “eight tonnes of silver”.

“Subotic was acting as a broker of sorts, for a percentage,” wrote Band. Subotic was also convicted of possessing 150 kg of CBD for the purpose of selling it. He was caught telling someone on a call that he’d paid $700K for the product.

Subotic, appeared to have a difficult time selling it, court documents show. Subotic is expected to be sentenced in September.