Friday, May 4, 2018

CRA's Panama Papers raids targeted oilpatch fixer with half-dozen offshore companies

accountability transparency tax evasion shell companies business crime corruption offshore

An Alberta businessman who has quietly been teeing up hundreds of millions of dollars in deals for Chinese investors to buy oilpatch assets is the first person known to be targeted by the Canada Revenue Agency's criminal investigations into the Panama Papers, court records reveal.

Wentao Yang's million-dollar Calgary home, a West Vancouver mansion used by him and his wife, and their accountant's office north of Toronto were the targets of headline-grabbing CRA raids last Valentine's Day, as agents sought evidence of tax evasion by Yang through a thicket of offshore companies he is involved in.

The CRA alleges that the Shanghai-born financier evaded more than $860,000 in income tax and GST on nearly $2.7 million in income he pocketed from brokering one of the biggest Chinese purchases in the oilpatch in recent years.

"Yang has not personally reported any earnings derived from his involvement" in the deal, CRA criminal investigator Jason Shephard says in a court filing obtained by CBC News and the Toronto Star.  (more...)

accountability transparency tax evasion shell companies business crime corruption offshore
Flying off the bookshelves

No comments:

Post a Comment