Calgary man allegedly used employment scam to steal identities for fake tax refunds

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced today that Mr. Chun Zhu aka Ted Zhu (Zhu) of Calgary, Alberta, has been charged on July 16, 2020, with one count of claiming a refund to which he or any other person is not entitled, two counts of fraud over $5,000, and two counts of obtaining and using another’s identity to commit an indictable offense.

The criminal charges laid against Zhu allege that, as early as March 2018, he started gathering personal information from individuals who applied on fake job postings that he set up. In February 2019, Zhu used the information he gathered from these applications to electronically prepare, print out, and file as many as 317 personal tax returns. These returns claimed unwarranted tax refunds totalling more than $760,000 which he attempted to have deposited into bank accounts which he controlled.

All case-specific information above was obtained from the court records.

The CRA investigates suspected cases of tax evasion, fraud, and other serious violations of tax laws and recommends cases to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) for criminal prosecution. In 2019-2020, the PPSC conviction rate for tax-related crimes was 94%.

The CRA remains dedicated to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s tax system, and the social and economic well-being of Canadians during these unprecedented times. The CRA continues to aggressively pursue tax evasion, and false claims with all the tools available to them. The CRA is dedicated to ensuring that individuals and businesses claim income earned and losses to which they are entitled so that important benefit programs can be administered to those who need them. As a result of COVID-19, we are seeing the increased importance of these benefits, and are working to ensure that they continue to be available to Canadians. Any individual or business who claims income earned, losses or benefits that they are not entitled to, including ineligible claims related to new COVID-19 benefits, will face serious consequences.

The CRA has set up a free subscription service to help Canadians stay current on the CRA’s enforcement efforts.

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Associated links

• Leads Program
• Voluntary Disclosures Program

Contacts

For media information:

Joanne de Waal
Manager of Communications
306-517-0515