From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency corruption fear over $400K cheque to Nicolo Rizzuto :   
   CRA SOTW   
      
   Revenue Canada corruption feared over $400K cheque to Nicolo Rizzuto   
   Big rebate issued to mob boss even though he owed $1.5M to tax man   
      
   CBC News Sep 25, 2013 10:40 PM ET   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency issued a rebate cheque for nearly $400,000 to a top   
   Quebec Mafia figure even though he owed the tax department $1.5 million at the   
   time, heightening concerns of possible infiltration of the agency by organized   
   crime.   
      
   Details about the payment to former Sicilian mob boss Nicolo Rizzuto were   
   unearthed during a three-year investigation by journalists at Radio-Canada,   
   CBC's French-language sister network, into allegations of corruption at the   
   tax agency's Montreal office,   
    which the RCMP have been probing since 2008.   
      
   The $381,737.46 cheque was made out to "Nick Rizzuto" and addressed to his   
   house on Antoine Berthelet Avenue in north-end Montreal, a street known as   
   "Mafia row" because it was home to several major players in the city's   
   Sicilian mob.   
   The cheque is labelled "income tax refund" and is dated Sept. 13, 2007.   
   Rizzuto was in jail then, having been arrested the year prior and charged with   
   extortion, bookmaking and drug smuggling as part of the biggest police   
   crackdown on the Italian Mafia    
   in Canadian history.   
   Court records show that at the time, he also owed the tax department $1.55   
   million, which the Canada Revenue Agency tried to collect by getting a tax   
   lien on his home.   
      
   The veteran CRA auditor who first discovered the anomaly said he can't   
   understand how a big rebate cheque to someone who had such a huge tax bill —   
   and who was a known Mafia figure — could have gotten past internal controls   
   without inside help.   
      
   "That name there was all over the headlines after the arrests. I mean, look,   
   we're not talking about Joe Blow here," Jean-Pierre Paquette, who retired from   
   the revenue agency in 2009, told the Radio-Canada investigative program   
   Enquête.   
      
   "There are checks in place. There are approvals that are required during the   
   whole process," he added. "It's left me rather perplexed about the validity of   
   that kind of rebate or that kind of move by the agency."   
      
   Paquette, who spent 35 years with the CRA's anti-organized-crime unit, said   
   after he learned about the cheque, he went to Rizzuto's home to persuade the   
   family to return it. Rizzuto's daughter handed it back to him in the kitchen.   
      
   Noël Carisse, assistant director of media relations at CRA, said: "It would be   
   highly irresponsible to suggest that there was anything inappropriate, illicit   
   or nefarious in CRA’s dealings with this specific taxpayer. Any suggestion   
   that CRA did not    
   devote the proper resources or attention to this situation is unequivocally   
   false."   
      
   Rizzuto, whose son is former Montreal Mafia godfather Vito Rizzuto, pleaded   
   guilty to gangsterism charges in 2008 and was sentenced to time served. Two   
   years later, he was charged with tax evasion for failing to declare income on   
   $5.2 million in Swiss    
   accounts and again pleaded guilty, paying $209,000 in fines.   
      
   He was shot dead at his home by a sniper in November 2010 at the age of 86.   
      
   Corruption alleged inside CRA   
   The cheque to Rizzuto is the latest in a series of troubling revelations about   
   the Canada Revenue Agency's Montreal tax office, which the RCMP began   
   investigating for possible corruption in 2008 at the agency's own request.   
   Evidence has emerged that some revenue agency officials in Montreal might have   
   received tens of thousands of dollars in cash and other benefits, including a   
   trip to a Montreal Canadiens game, from people and businesses they were   
   auditing.   
      
   Watch CBC News will broadcast more details from the Enquête investigation into   
   allegations of corruption within the Canada Revenue Agency.   
      
   There are also allegations some CRA agents tried to extort restaurateurs whose   
   taxes they were assessing.   
   One of the businessmen alleged to have bribed auditors, Francesco Bruno, is a   
   construction executive with ties to the Rizzutos.   
      
   So far, the CRA has fired nine employees. Six of them have been charged by the   
   RCMP with crimes ranging from breach of trust to tax fraud to extortion.   
      
   The RCMP says the total amount of taxes avoided through the corrupt schemes   
   could total in the tens of millions of dollars.   
      
   -----------------------------------------------------------    
   Miss a Tax Tale Miss a lot!    
   Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com    
   ------------------------------------------------------------    
   Alan Baggett – Tax Collector’s Bible -  http://taxcollectorsbible.com/     
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)