Finance committee relaunches probe into offshore tax evasion with questions over Isle of Man fraud A managing partner at KPMG told the committee that allegations the company was involved with Isle of Man sword companies and CINAR fraud are false
Author of the article: Jesse Snyder
Publishing date: May 06, 2021 • 18 hours ago • 4 minute read • Douglas Harbour on the Isle of Man. A 2019 report estimates that the Canadian government is missing out on as much as $25 billion a year in revenues due to an inability to crack down on overseas tax havens. Photo by Getty Images
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OTTAWA A Parliamentary committee on Thursday launched an investigation into how Canada can better defend against offshore tax evasion, with some MPs pressing for details around a high-profile financial fraud in the mid-2000s that robbed many Canadians of their life savings.
Opposition parties support finance committee probe
Before they halted their Isle of Man probe in 2016, members of Parliament on the finance committee learned the KPMG scheme was not only marketed to ultra-rich Canadians as a way to dodge taxes, but also as a way to keep money from potential creditors.
An internal KPMG document, obtained by the finance committee, showed that the accounting firm promoted their scheme as a way for their wealthy clients to protect their assets offshore. There was nothing [a] creditor/ex-spouse etc. can claim,
KPMG said it would charge its clients a minimum of $100,000 to buy into the scheme, including factoring in a percentage of the amount of taxes saved by the wealthy Canadians.
KPMG disputes leaked emails linking firm to offshore companies suspected in massive Ponzi scheme cbc.ca - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from cbc.ca Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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A man who was convicted in two of the biggest financial scams uncovered in Canada is not even allowed to advise his family on investments or financial matters as he continues to serve his sentence for his role in the Cinar scandal.
Lino Matteo, 59, the former CEO of the financial management company Mount Real Corp., is still serving the eight-year sentence he received after he was convicted for his role in the elaborate fraud scheme in which Ronald Weinberg, founder of the Montreal-based television production company Cinar, hid $123 million of investors’ funds in the Bahamas.
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