by Jennifer Pritchett
NNSL (Jan 29/97) - Twelve Yellowknife men have been charged with stealing millions of dollars in long-distance phone calls following what police say is the largest fraud investigation in Yellowknife history.

The three-week operation, which involved more than 50 RCMP members in Yellowknife and Edmonton, led investigators to Inuvik, where eight more arrests were made last night.

RCMP said the suspects made calls to all over the world, amounting to $10 million to $11 million in foregone revenues over the last year-and-a-half.

Police say they made calls to Hong Kong, London and parts of Africa, among other places.

The suspects apparently figured out how to bypass the billing network and access toll lines to make the calls for free, said Yellowknife RCMP Sgt. Dave Grundy.

NorthwesTel discovered the fraud early in January through routine equipment checks and notified police Jan. 3, he said.

Charged with theft of telecommunications are Ahmed Hagi Yusuf, Mohamud Hagi-Salim Hassan, Abdullahi Ali Ahmed, Mohamud Mohamed Jama, Abukar Sheikh Hassan, Artan Rooble Maalin, Abdiasis Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed, Aydarus Abdi Warsame, Abdullahi Mohammed Abdi, Ismail Elay Sabriye, Hussen Mahamud Alasow and Abdullahi Yusuf Omar.

The men -- ranging in age from 24 to 48 and all Yellowknife residents police say -- were working as taxi drivers.

They were held in custody overnight last Thursday until they appeared before a justice of the peace.

They are scheduled to appear in territorial court March 25.

Anne Grainger, director of public affairs for NorthwestTel, said this is the largest example of fraud in the phone company's history.

"Because of the size of this, most likely there's nothing bigger out there," she said. "It was also very specialized in how they could do this."

Grainger said fraud such as this has a major impact on NorthwesTel customers."Capital investments for equipment and maintenance costs have to be adjusted for this," she said.