180ed2d2   
   XPost: can.general, can.politics, ott.general   
   From: OttoMann@yahoo.ca   
      
   Wow.  If we'd all only known that it wasn't about keeping tax receipts - but   
   keeping someone's   
   palm in the CRA greased.   
      
   ___________________________________________________   
      
      
   "Alan Baggett"  wrote in message   
   news:7b40c913-ab7e-4a97-8887-aba39fd11cc5@f15g2000pro.googlegroups.com...   
   CRA Corruption: The bad news just keeps on coming CRA SOTW   
      
   By HENRY AUBIN, The Gazette March 12, 2011   
      
   MONTREAL - There were more discouraging developments this week on the   
   corruption front. Well-known problems appear to be worsening in public   
   life.   
      
   If there's one public insti-tution that needs to be above suspicion,   
   it's the Canada Revenue Agency. Yet Radio-Canada's Enquête program   
   reported on Thursday that 12 present or former employees of the   
   agency's Montreal office are under investigation for taking bribes in   
   exchange for allowing companies or individuals to avoid taxes.   
      
   To be sure, we already knew the Montreal office had some rotten   
   apples: In April 2009, the RCMP arrested two employees, and news   
   reports last December said the number of people who had been fired or   
   suspended without pay had grown to nine. The addition of three more   
   might seem insignificant. But there's this:   
      
   Enquête presented an agency source - his identity masked - who said   
   the corruption is systemic. He said it goes back some 20 years. Senior   
   management is "very tolerant (of the practice). The tolerance goes   
   further than turning a blind eye."   
      
   Most troubling of all is the revelation that no one - not even the two   
   employees arrested two years ago - has been charged with any crime.   
      
   Moral: Crime does pay. As a tax collector, you can make good money   
   taking bribes. If caught, the worst that can happen is losing your   
   job.   
      
   AND   
      
   Montreal CRA Auditors Face Probes :CRA SOTW  CBC News   
      
   Allegations of corruption at the Montreal office of Canada Revenue   
   Agency have led to investigations of auditors, as well as employee   
   suspensions and terminations, CBC News has learned.   
      
   Nine employees at the agency have been suspended or fired following   
   allegations that officials there helped at least one construction   
   industry boss in Quebec evade taxes.   
      
   Sources inside the agency told CBC's French-language service Radio-   
   Canada that the problem goes back more than a decade.   
      
   The investigation into the Montreal office began following a tip to   
   the RCMP in 2007.   
      
   An informer told police that a construction businessman had been   
   paying off a manager at the revenue agency, according to court   
   documents. The informant said the manager was helping the company   
   avoid taxes.   
   One source at the agency agreed to be intervi   
   ewed by Radio-Canada about how that was done. His name is being   
   withheld to protect his security, but his story was corroborated by   
   other sources within the CRA.   
      
   He said the person at the agency who allegedly received money was a   
   high-profile figure at the Montreal office.   
      
   After the 2007 tip, both the RCMP and the revenue agency launched   
   probes that led to charges against Montreal construction firm B.T.   
   Céramique Inc. and its owner, Frank Bruno.   
      
   He was accused of helping two other companies produce false bills —   
   bills to help the largest construction companies in Quebec avoid   
   millions of dollars in tax claims. The owner of those two other   
   companies, Tony Accurso, pleaded guilty to tax fraud and was fined   
   more than $4 million.   
      
   Bruno pleaded guilty a few months ago to tax fraud involving nearly $2   
   million. According to CRA sources, insiders helped him avoid an audit   
   for several years.   
      
   Other agency employees reported irregularities with the tax file years   
   before the informant went to police, but no one investigated, the   
   source told Radio-Canada.   
      
   "The case is disturbing because it took so long. It took years to be   
   discovered, which is weird," said Messaoud Abda, a professor of anti-   
   fraud at the University of Sherbrooke.   
      
   "The problem may be that we need a whistle-blowing mechanism, so we   
   can guarantee protection for people inside," he said.   
      
   To date, no one at the Montreal revenue agency office or any former   
   employee has been charged in connection with these allegations.   
      
      
   -----------------------------------------------------------   
   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   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)