Latest news with #OCN
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Automotive
- Bloomberg
Fintech OCN to Invest $150 Million for Expansion in Mexico
Mexican fintech OCN, which offers car rental models for gig workers, will invest $150 million in Mexico to help expand vehicle access for ride-hailing drivers in key cities in the country, according to a press release. The fresh capital will be deployed over the next 18 months to grow OCN's presence in Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana, and Querétaro — some of the country's most densely populated cities. The company plans to use the investment to triple its fleet to 15,000 vehicles from 5,000, and increase its workforce to 150 from 120.
Winnipeg Free Press
04-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
‘Huge step for us': Opaskwayak opens downtown apartment building
At first, Lisa-Marie Lathlin's apartment hunt did not go well. The Opaskwayak Cree Nation member sought a place off-reserve in Winnipeg. She's enrolled to attend Yellowquill University College this fall. 'I couldn't find anything affordable,' Lathlin said Friday. BROOK JONES / FREE PRESS Paragon Living President & CEO Nigel Furgus helps Opaskwayak Cree Nation Chief Maureen Brown cut the ribbon at the new apartments at 380 Young St. Then Lathlin heard about a complex OCN was building downtown. By Friday, she'd settled in to her suite at 380 Young St. The Winnipeg apartment is the first of three that OCN plans to build and own by 2028. A handful more — led by various First Nations — are in the pipeline. They are rising up as governments pump funding into affordable housing projects. 'This is a huge step for us,' said Ginger Martin, chief executive of Paskwayak Business Development Corp. She and fellow Opaskwayak members were on hand for 380 Young's grand opening Friday. All 69 units have been rented, the crowd was told. First Nation members — mainly OCN, but some from places such as St. Theresa Point — account for more than 40 per cent of the tenants. OCN members took first priority. There's a mix of students, seniors and young professionals. Rent starts around $680 per month — roughly 69 per cent of the median market rent for the Centennial neighbourhood, said Nigel Furgus, president of Paragon Living. The developer ensured at least 40 per cent of the units met the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. criteria for affordable housing. That way, the seven-storey tower would be eligible for the CMHC affordable housing fund. There was a mad rush for the lesser-priced units: more than 200 applications were submitted in two weeks, Furgus recalled. 'The higher-priced units are struggling a bit more,' he said, speaking about the rental industry broadly. The most expensive units at 380 Young — at least $1,600 for two bedrooms — have been taken. (Average overall rent in Winnipeg was $1,663 in May, per and Urbanation data.) Construction on 380 Young began at least two years ago. It opened to tenants this May — nearly a year later than expected — because of two fires, Furgus said. At least one was arson; one started after the final floor had been erected and the place was drywalled. 'We kind of had to strip it, gut it and redo it,' Furgus said, adding insurance covered the cost. Ottawa contributed $15.6 million to the apartment through a national housing fund involving low-interest and forgivable loans. OCN fronted $1.8 million. It's among the first projects funded by the $14.6-billion CMHC Affordable Housing Fund that's solely First Nations-owned. 'We need to create our own source revenues,' Martin said. 'It's going to build our assets, our generational wealth.' OCN aims to open a 129-unit apartment block in St. Boniface, on Marion Street, in September 2026. A third complex in Bridgwater, with 240 units, could come in 2028. CMHC funding would be used in both projects, Martin said. 'We've always been visionaries,' said Chief Maureen Brown. The community near The Pas has more than 7,000 members, including some 3,300 who live off reserve. OCN's upcoming apartments are largely in the permit stage, Furgus said. Paragon Living has been tapped to create both. Furgus hinted at three other multi-family buildings in the works with First Nations. One, with Roseau River Anishinaabe First Nation, is being built on Chancellor Drive. Another — with 450 suites — is set for Edmonton. A third in Winnipeg should be announced within the next year, Furgus said. Now is a good time to aim for government support on housing projects, said Jino Distasio, a University of Winnipeg urban geography professor. The City of Winnipeg has received two of four $30.6-million installments through Ottawa's housing accelerator fund. The agreement targets 1,354 affordable housing units, at minimum, between December 2023 and December 2026. A remaining 1,070 are targeted between 2025 and 2026, city spokesman Adam Campbell wrote in a statement. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'What we're seeing across Canada and certainly within Winnipeg (is) a tremendous advancement of First Nations-led development,' Distasio said. It extends beyond housing: Distasio pointed to transformations at the former Kapyong Barracks on Kenaston Boulevard, the former downtown Hudson's Bay store and the historic Bank of Montreal at Portage and Main. Wehwehneh Bahgahkinahgohn alone, the Southern Chiefs' Organization's redevelopment of the Bay, could add more than 300 housing units, a child care centre and commercial space. '(Indigenous nations are) really adding a unique and important dynamic to the urban development of Winnipeg,' Distasio said. 'We're going to begin to see a dramatically different downtown and Portage in the next couple years.' Gabrielle PichéReporter Gabrielle Piché reports on business for the Free Press. She interned at the Free Press and worked for its sister outlet, Canstar Community News, before entering the business beat in 2021. Read more about Gabrielle. Every piece of reporting Gabrielle produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Daily Mail
22-06-2025
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Sydney accountant accused of using his role to help a major organised crime network - as details of secret scheme emerge
A Sydney accountant has been charged with using his is professional position to facilitate criminal activity for a prominent organised crime network. The accountant, 43, is allegedly responsible for facilitating money laundering and fraud on behalf of members of the crime group through his tax practice. Following extensive inquiries, about 9.50am on Tuesday May 13, detectives executed a search warrant at a taxation office in Sydney's CBD. During the search, police located a number of both physical and electronic financial records relating to members of the OCN. The man was taken to Burwood Police Station, where he was charged with two counts of publish etc false misleading material to obtain advantage and two counts of make false document to obtain financial advantage etc. He was granted conditional bail and appeared in Burwood Local Court on Tuesday 17 June. Days later, a 30-year-old man was issued a Future Court Attendance Notice charged with dishonestly obtain property by deception. Police will allege in court the 30-year-old man orchestrated a false mortgage application for a property worth over $1 million to disguise himself as the beneficiary of the property. The man is due to appear before Parramatta Local Court on Wednesday 30 July.
Sydney Morning Herald
22-06-2025
- Sydney Morning Herald
Tobacco and toe-cutting: The black market driving gang violence
A terrified tobacco runner was forced to tie up his friends and then bind his own feet, before Alameddine gangsters allegedly began cutting off his big toe in a horrific moment that illustrates how violence is part of doing business in Sydney's gang wars. Court documents, obtained by the Herald, claim up to 20 violent tobacco and vape thefts, known as 'rips', have fuelled the underworld conflict that has led gunmen to open fire on public streets. The sun had just set on January 4 this year, when a senior member of an Alameddine organised crime network (OCN) subgroup, known as Proper 60, met with two associates, Ahmed Dudu and Mohamad Kaddour, on a suburban street in Merrylands. The senior operative, his two associates and six other henchmen travelled in a convoy of rental trucks and vans to an industrial complex in Condell Park. They allegedly forced their way through the front door of Unit 11 and loaded up more than a tonne of tobacco products, which police suspect had been imported illegally. The gang cut the CCTV and power, which alerted the owners of the storage unit. Three men arrived at the unit about half an hour later to figure out what was happening. The Alameddines allegedly smashed their car window and dragged the three men out, bashing one savagely. The trio of captives was allegedly marched at knifepoint into the smashed industrial unit and up to an office area. '[One man] was forced to bind the hands and feet of (the other two) with tape,' a police document alleges. The man was then allegedly ordered to bind his own feet.
The Age
22-06-2025
- The Age
Tobacco and toe-cutting: The black market driving gang violence
A terrified tobacco runner was forced to tie up his friends and then bind his own feet, before Alameddine gangsters allegedly began cutting off his big toe in a horrific moment that illustrates how violence is part of doing business in Sydney's gang wars. Court documents, obtained by the Herald, claim up to 20 violent tobacco and vape thefts, known as 'rips', have fuelled the underworld conflict that has led gunmen to open fire on public streets. The sun had just set on January 4 this year, when a senior member of an Alameddine organised crime network (OCN) subgroup, known as Proper 60, met with two associates, Ahmed Dudu and Mohamad Kaddour, on a suburban street in Merrylands. The senior operative, his two associates and six other henchmen travelled in a convoy of rental trucks and vans to an industrial complex in Condell Park. They allegedly forced their way through the front door of Unit 11 and loaded up more than a tonne of tobacco products, which police suspect had been imported illegally. The gang cut the CCTV and power, which alerted the owners of the storage unit. Three men arrived at the unit about half an hour later to figure out what was happening. The Alameddines allegedly smashed their car window and dragged the three men out, bashing one savagely. The trio of captives was allegedly marched at knifepoint into the smashed industrial unit and up to an office area. '[One man] was forced to bind the hands and feet of (the other two) with tape,' a police document alleges. The man was then allegedly ordered to bind his own feet.
