http://www.quatloos.com/Q-Forum/viewtop ... 93#p273793To refresh memories I have written extensively on two Canadian tax scams that have generated a large volume of litigation. One moronically obvious scam was the Fiscal Arbitrators. A group of promoters sold the concept to gullible and/or greedy taxpayers that you could legally claim massive totally fake expenses against your taxable income. The theoretical fig leaf covering this was the claim that any expenses you incurred, food, mortgage, Vegas spree, could really be considered as tax deductible because they were necessary to keep you alive and functioning and earning taxable income. Even this was just bullshit since there was never any attempt by Fiscal Arbitrator promoters to determine their client's actual living expenses, the promoters just arbitrarily picked stunningly large numbers for their clients to claim as expenses. So somebody making, say, $60,000 a year would claim half a million in expenses. None of the Fiscal Arbitrator clients were charged with tax evasion although they were all hit with a gross negligence penalty of 50% of the taxes owing. The promoters went to jail.
That last sentence was not entirely correct since Aurelius Carlton Branch, one of the Fiscal Arbitrator promoters, thought prudence the better part of valor when fraud charges were filed against him on November 27, 2012. Apparently not entirely confident of his chances of beating the charges in court he decided to flee Canadian jurisdiction. So he buggered off to Costa Rica.
In his haste to enjoy the amenities of his tropical paradise he'd somehow neglected to leave a forwarding address with Canadian authorities and they couldn't locate him for trial. So a Canada-wide arrest warrant was issued for him on January 29, 2013, and Interpol published a “Red Notice” on April 12, 2013, identifying Branch as wanted for prosecution in Canada. He was eventually located and Costa Rica authorities arrested him on September 21, 2017, for the purpose of extradition to Canada.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced today that he was extradited back to Canada on February 26th. Given that his fellow promoters received jail terms I can see some time in the slammer in his future. Perhaps even right now. While the press release linked below doesn't discuss his current accomodations I'm assuming that he's being held pending trial to avoid a second attempt to enjoy an extended foreign vacation.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency ... medium=eml