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South Asian Brothers Headed To Jail For Fraud
Two Vancouver-based South Asian tax consultant brothers have been sentenced to prison for 51 months for running a fraud scheme.
Brothers Fareed Mohammed Raza, 42, and Saheem Mohammad Raza, 35, were sentenced in May, but the ruling recently appeared on the BC Supreme Court's website.
Fareed is married with one child. He had immigrated to Canada from Fiji in 1997 before becoming a Canadian citizen in 2001.
Fareed Raza helped Mashud Miah start a charity, the Mehfuz Trust, which was to raise money to operate a medical clinic for poor and handicapped children in Bangladesh.
However, Miah reported the brothers to the Canada Revenue Agency in 2008 upon discovering forged receipts.
Photo Credit: www.vancouversun.com
CRA tax inspector Jane Yang found that clients of the Raza brothers were donating large amounts to the trust.
Tax court judge Robert Hogan noted, "The donation pattern appeared to be abnormal."
An undercover RCMP officer posed as a single mother who had heard about the charity from a customer at a casino where she worked. She made donated $500, receiving a tax refund of $3,750.
The scheme went on from December 2002 to June 2011 and resulted in participants receiving more than $11 million worth of fraudulent tax receipts. In total, 781 clients received false donation receipts. Donations did not pass on to any Bangladeshi charity.
Photo Credit: www.montrealgazette.com
The trial went on for three weeks. The Crown had asked for a $570,000 fine, but Justice Elliot Myers declined. The judge noted the fraud was on an "industrial scale" and also refused to reimburse clients who had benefitted, saying "they were willing participants to the scheme and not victims."
The brothers' 34-year-old nephew, Faiz Khan, played a minor role in the fraud (under $5,000) and received a conditional discharge.
The Raza brothers will have time to contemplate their actions while spending more than four years in jail.
Main Image Photo Credit: www.thelinkpaper.ca
Sonia Malik
Author
Sonia writes on current affairs and pop culture. An English graduate from the University of Toronto, she identifies as a global citizen, feminist and nature lover. She will be ready to shake a leg to a peppy Bollywood beat any day.
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