Will Canada Revenue Agency investigate lawyer’s transfer of 1 million to a phoney client?
Will Canada Revenue Agency take on Big Law?
by Donald Best, former Sergeant, Detective, Toronto Police
Canada Revenue Agency (‘CRA’) recently announced that it has launched dozens of investigations into offshore monies that surfaced in the Panama Papers leak. (Toronto Star news article here)
The agency says it has “upped its game” in going after the money-laundering, tax-fraud crowd with a half-a-billion dollar budget increase aimed squarely at funding such investigations.
I wonder if the CRA will shy away from investigating big Bay Street law firms – given that everybody knows that without corrupt lawyers and accountants, tax-fraud and money-laundering would be severely obstructed for most of the offshore monied class.
Considering that a recent Global Witness ‘cold-call’ undercover investigation showed that fully 25% of big city lawyers are willing to money-launder, we can safely assume that a much higher percentage of lawyers would do the dirty deed for their known and trusted client base.
Unless the Canada Revenue Agency is willing to take on Big Law, their investigations will only yield low hanging fruit – little guys.
So in the spirit of Canadians cooperating with the Canada Revenue Agency to lower all our tax pressures, I offer the following set of circumstances that can easily be proven through documents already filed as evidence before the courts. CRA investigators and my readers shouldn’t believe anything I say though… they should examine the evidence and make up their own minds.
Money laundering question: Where did the million dollars go?
Big Law Firm lawyers Gerald Ranking – Lorne Silver knew Ranking’s purported client did not exist.
Toronto lawyer Gerald Ranking and his Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP law firm were paid over a million dollars in court costs during the Nelson Barbados Group vs Cox civil lawsuit – in trust for their purported client, ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers East Caribbean Firm’.
Only one little problem: Gerald Ranking, Faskens and co-counsel Lorne Silver knew that the Ranking’s client was a phoney non-entity that does not, and did not, exist at any time.
The use of a fraudulent, non-existant business entity for financial transactions is a recognized badge of fraud and money-laundering.
While Gerald Ranking’s use of a phoney client and non-existent business entity offered his real clients some measure of protection if the civil suit was lost, it created problems when the court ordered payments to the phoney non-existent business. By definition, a phoney non-existent business cannot have a bank account.
During the Nelson Barbados Group Ltd. civil case, about a million dollars in costs was paid to Faskens and Ranking in trust for their fraudulent non-existent ‘client’. So where did Faskens and Ranking transfer the money received ‘in trust’ for their phoney client?
The one thing we do know about where the money went is that it was never deposited into any bank account in the name ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers East Caribbean Firm’ as the court ordered.
How did Fasken and Ranking work around the currency laws of Barbados, applicable income tax laws and other legal problems that must have arisen when transferring a million dollars the court ordered paid to a non-existent, phoney, fraudulent non-entity?
That, as they say, is an excellent question that is certainly worthy of consideration by the courts, Canada Revenue Agency, the Law Society of Upper Canada and by ordinary Canadians.
Here’s where CRA and my readers can find the sworn and filed court evidence to investigate and decide this matter for themselves:
September 17, 2015 – Why did Fasken Martineau lawyer Gerald Ranking not submit costs to the Supreme Court of Canada?
September 20, 2014 – Lawsuit Claim: Faskens lawyer Gerald Ranking knowingly represented a phoney business entity, lied to the Supreme Court of Canada.
March 27, 2016 – Anonymous Companies: Global Witness undercover investigation shows 25% of lawyers will money launder.
Let me make it quite clear: Lawyer Gerald Ranking of the large Canadian law firm Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, knowingly lied to the Superior Court of Ontario, the Appeal Court of Ontario and to the Supreme Court of Canada. Starting in 2007, Ranking falsely claimed that his purported client ‘Pricewaterhouse Coopers East Caribbean Firm’ was a business legitimately registered with the Government of Barbados. That was a lie in 2007, and it continues to be a lie.
Ranking and his witness maintained that lie for years, even in the face of irrefutable evidence to the contrary. In January of 2013, Ranking even sought to reinforce the lie by fraudulently reading into the court record deliberately false renditions of Barbados government records. The evidence to support all this is filed with the courts, and is available here at DonaldBest.ca.
Fasken Martineau DuMoulin lawyer Gerald Ranking is a liar. His actions were unethical and illegal. He lied to the Supreme Court of Canada.
Further… there is the question of the million dollars paid into Ranking’s trust account for a non-existent, fraudulent client that could not have possibly had a bank account.
And the money ended up where?
Clear enough? Good!
I read your article regarding deferred prosecution agreements that the canadian government is pondering and I say—thats a scam a sham—SNC Lavelin has been charged with being corrupt and they should pay the price. Plain and simple. They were involved with Libya’s Ghadaffis son with bribery and kickbacks.. Also in the Charbonneau Commission too with respect to one million dollars in illegal contributions to Quebec political parties. Bid rigging scams etc. Threatening of a spanish firm in a bidding war.
When are we going to send a clear message that these rich white collared criminals are going to pay a price for what they do? If the government of Canada allows this deferred prosecution agreement then they are for sure catering to the crooked white collared criminals. Ask the small companies that lost out on contracts that SNC Lavelin took by engaging in criminal activities???? Are you going to pay these companies money as compensation for the criminal activity of bid rigging etc. Perhaps if deferred prosecution agreements are to be fair then all companies who bidded that lost should be paid a favorable sum by SNC Lavelin . Why should the company pay the government a fine and the little guy gets nothing because of their crooked activities. This is not a game of monopoly where your given a get out of jail free card.
Perhaps if companies started being prosecuted and jailed frequently then you would curb the problem. Deferred prosecution agreements only makes the corruption more appealing to companies not the other way around.
Great article dealing with Transparency International Canada. Its not doing the job it really should be doing obviously. Big corporations wanting to push the government for deferred prosecution agreements.
After the Charbonneau commission how could you ever bring up the idea of deferred prosecution agreements. The government should have tighten their hold and reserved the jails for these characters not for innocent people like Donald Best.
The children of the future are being sent a clear message and that is power corrupts and as long as you have money you can do whatever you want. Get caught you get a slap on the wrist.
Anyone interested in an attempt at cover up please google Canadian Whistle blowers and it gives a lists of those who have courageously blew the lid on corruption and noteworthy is the RCMP 5 who blew the lid on the pension plan scandal even though top RCMP brass tried to stop the investigation.
I hope all those top brass were fired. The courageous 5 received commendation and so they should. What other pension plan scandals did RCMP top brass engage in cover up of? Since one top brass in the RCMP owns a law firm I think we can all ask many questions about cover up of fabricating lawyers and judges or as Kathleen Wynne confirmed Rogue Lawyers and who decides to do a proper investigation and bring forth charges if necessary.
According to an article in the Toronto Star the lawyer David Brown who read over 400000 documents in the inquiry stated this very superb description about whistle blowers and the effect it has on their lives—for Donald Best and others this is so true and this is part of a huge lawsuit against those who cover up “people who speak out often suffer a significant personal price in terms of their peace of mind, their professional, social and family relationships and their confidence in the future.
Bravo David Brown. Perhaps you could help Donald Best with that very poignant and precise observation because this is exactly what has happened to Donald Best and others who have posted their stories on this website and so many others.
dave simetic has no charter of rights and freedoms and no human rights Rodney newton has no charter of rights fighting for justice for 11 years. lawyer in Sudbury gets litigation completed in six week. I went to see mp in Sudbury his contact person stayed in his office for 45 minutes forther evidence they don’t serve us the issue was corruption Canada land of injustice. truedea is AWOL
Another bunch of cowards named the CRA…everyone Google Isle of Mann tax evasion scheme…watch what role former prime minister Harper was involved. ..watch as the CRA was wined and dined by KPMG … and ask is the CRA protecting tax evaders instead of catching them ??? Donald Best for more than 2 years has provided evidence of a fictitious business with 1 million paid to this unregistered phony business.
Just to show you how honorable cowards can be..just to make readers laugh .. or be sickened the CRA wiped out the bank account of a Canadian who was in negotiations with respect to his dead wife’s estate. Overnight the CRA wiped the account out…he CRA when are you going to freeze the assets of the rizzuttos family engaged in mobster and racketeering business. The lawyer is also in jail. We’re waiting. When will our newspaper out this story that the feds went in and wiped out their bank acct.
Just to let everyone know how our tax payers money is used to protect big business and crooked . By the way we had to stop the guy from committing suicide after the CRA wiped out his bank acct. When they shut down the Italian cafes in GTA a couple of years ago for illegal gambling equipment did the CRA freeze their assets???
I am not holding my breath at all that the CRA will do anything about this so obvious case of criminal conduct BUT one thing is sure, we need more persons to do exactly as MR Best is doing to expose these fraudsters in our courts.
This is one of the reasons I have not been too enthused with the SCC’s recent mockery of justice ruling in Pintea v John> For while it was a good thing it is just a joke in the bigger scheme of things. That same SCC has said time and again once an appeal goes forward everything about it is par for the course yet with Pintea V John they treated SRLs like parriahs of the justice system who should be just tossed a bone.
I am also not amused by parliament’s (rather Rona Ambrose’s) Bill that mandates sexual assault training for judges. Our parliament (as should our SCC) must use its time to deal PROPERLY and FULLY with issues before it/them. It is a waste of time and further abuse to the populace when they just cherry pick little issues that are just small parts of the big UGLY picture of what is wrong with our courts and the fact that we have too many scammers and criminal minds in our judiciary (and legal profession)
All of the above said, I ask, is the debacle with judges making a fool of themselves (and us) with those shameful and scandalous handling of sexual assault cases any less than the debacle involved with these lawyers and judges in Mr Best’s case (and the cases of others), Pintea v. John and the other well known ones ( I shall add Mead v. Mead, the number of wrongful vexatious litigant declarations and jailing of SRLs among others )? Is there any difference or more importance in one of these cases over the others? I think not. So why are our government and courts failing to deal with the darn bigger issue of judicial misconduct and incompetence instead for these little mini self interest waste of our time?
Add to all the foolishness that the present federal government seems ot think appointing more female judges is going to address the problem. I can tell them based on my encounters with the female judges in Alberta, truth is I think dealing with the male chauvinists was actually the better of two evils.
Not only lawyers but also judges ,Approximately 5 years ago I wrote on my blog,I mentioned this and made complaints to the CRA ,nothing happened so far.Laws are applied for only ordinary poor citizens,no one is equal under the law in Canada.
We had asked CRA to help investigate the lawyers hiding our assets. Including Norman Groot a Bay street lawyer who claims to be a fraud investigator. He misled us on bank statements and stood us up in court which cost our family everything. We cannot finish estate regarding clearance certificate for CRA which we explained to them and they still refused to help. 11 lawyers now and still obstructed from families accounts as an executor. We are still desperate for help and cannot find lawyer in province to assist us.