A $228M penalty in which the tax authorities will not see color

Revenu Québec will receive only a small fraction of the nearly $230 million fine imposed last year on an entrepreneurial “trainer” who tried to commit a mega tax fraud.

On March 2, a numbered company owned by 48-year-old Robert Parent filed for bankruptcy, wiping out the possibility of tax officials collecting anything from the $114 million fine levied on the company.

It states that “there shall be no dividend to the lenders”. Register Trustee on file, Jean Lelievre.

The expert is surprised that the government can levy such a heavy fine against a company that has no assets or income.

“It’s the first time in my life I’ve seen a situation like this,” says Mr. Lelievre.

“What for [le gouvernement] Did he not appear at the creditors’ meeting? It looks to me like you’re $100 million in debt. It is specific. »

According to Revenu Québec, Mr. Parent’s numbered entity entered into a hypothetical $750 million transaction in June 2019 with another of his entities, Licorne Luxuriante inc.

The following month, the numbered company claimed more than $112 million in tax refunds related to the bogus transaction — however, Revenu Québec never paid.

“The Silly File”

“No matter how astronomical the statistics are, it’s a stupid file,” says Jean Lelievre.

In February 2022, Robert Parent pleaded guilty and admitted to creating Lycorne Luxuriant “for the sole purpose of effecting a fictitious transaction”. In addition to the $114 million fine imposed on his listed company, he received a personal fine of the same amount and a 12-month suspended prison sentence.

On his website, Mr. It appears that the parent cannot personally pay the fine imposed on him. But it stays on his file until he goes bankrupt.

“It’s a symbolic fine, but if he wins the lottery one day, he’ll probably be able to pay,” says Mark Dace, a professor and financial criminologist at the University of Ottawa.

Crazy fines?

Revenu Québec denies the strange fines imposed in this extraordinary file.

“We did our job. Our prosecutors got a verdict in our favor,” said Claude-Olivier Faignant, the organization’s spokesman.

The situation would have been much worse if the tax authorities had not prevented the tax refunds from the beginning, said Mr. Tasse notes.

I appreciate the officials for acting quickly without issuing the cheque, he said.

Robert’s parents did not call back Newspaper.

Last year, he declared that the case was, in his view, “a file on the abuse of Revenue Quebec.”

In 2018, Revenu Québec imposed fines totaling $211 million against several individuals and companies in two fraudulent gold processing cases. It is not known how much the government got in the end.