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CRA Employee Profits from Tax Return Tampering :CRA SOTW

ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A Canada Revenue Agency employee in Newfoundland
and Labrador has been accused of tampering with 102 tax returns to
divert $668,000 to addresses he set up.

Agency spokesman Roy Jamieson said Tuesday the employee in the St.
John's office has been fired and the matter has been sent to the
public prosecutor's office for possible criminal charges.

Jamieson said the unidentified man allegedly tampered with tax returns
over an 11-year period, between 1996 and 2007.

"This activity went on for a considerable amount of time and was
virtually invisible to the taxpayers whose returns were tampered
with," he said.

The employee is alleged to have taken settled tax return documents,
then added on expenses - ranging from GST credits to moving costs -
and sent in the reassessed results with fresh addresses to get
refunds, benefits and tax credits.

Jamieson said affected taxpayers have been contacted.

In all but one case, he said, the alleged tampering didn't have any
impact on the refunds due to taxpayers. In that one case, the taxpayer
has received a refund.

Jamieson said the Canada Revenue Agency identified the cases through
routine checks, but it took an investigation to discover the pattern
of tampering.

"We would want to detect these situations much, much sooner ... but
this activity was invisible to taxpayers and therefore they had no
reason to call us and ask what was going on with their accounts," he
said.

The person who was fired was a long-time employee who had detailed
knowledge of the agency's systems and understood tax return
procedures, said the spokesman.

There are 1,700 Canada Revenue employees in Newfoundland and Labrador,
and about 45,000 employees across the country.

"My understanding is that in the last five years we've had an average
of one or two cases per year of tampering cases," said Jamieson.

Copyright © 2009 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

AND

A former federal tax centre employee in St. John's has been charged
with fraud. Seventeen charges were laid Friday in an alleged decade-
long tax scam.

Kurt Fagan, 51, of Mount Pearl, was fired in December. He had worked
at the tax centre for more than 20 years.

The Canada Revenue Agency believes he pocketed about $688,000 over 10
years.
An investigation found that tax returns were being reassessed and
fraudulent benefits for things like moving expenses, GST credits and
child tax benefits were being added. It's alleged that Fagan kept the
money from the fraudulent claims.

Fagan was suspended without pay by the Canada Revenue Agency a year
ago. The agency says tax returns for more than 100 people were
accessed improperly.

One taxpayer lost a small amount of money but it has been returned.
The Canada Revenue Agency won't say if any of the money Fagan is
alleged to have taken was recovered.

Fagan has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. He has
also been charged under the Income Tax Act with tax evasion, making
false statements and filing false income tax claims.

He's scheduled to appear in a St. John's provincial courtroom in
August.


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