Collecteur Project: Canada Revenue Agency joint forces operation leads to the conviction of two taxpayers guilty of tax evasion

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announces that Nader Gramian-Nik of Maple, Ontario, was sentenced on February 24, 2023, at the Montréal Courthouse to 9 years in jail and fined $928,234, in addition to having properties with an estimated value of $4.6 million confiscated as proceeds of crime.

Mr. Gramian-Nik pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit tax evasion under the Income Tax Act, laundering the proceeds of crime, trafficking in property obtained by crime and operating a money-services business without a license.

Also, Frederick Rayman of Whitby, Ontario was sentenced on November 8, 2022 to a $50,000 fine, an 18-month conditional sentence and 100 hours of community work. He pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion under the Income Tax Act, for making false or misleading entries in Mr. Gramian-Nik’s accounting records.

The investigation revealed that Mr. Gramian-Nik had set up, through various companies, a system to launder money derived from the illicit activities of various individuals. To do this, he operated an informal value transfer system with ramifications in Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, the United States and China. Through this scheme, Mr. Gramian-Nik willfully omitted to report more than $3.2 million of taxable income on his returns for taxation years 2013 to 2018, thus trying to evade the payment of taxes owed.

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

These convictions are the result of a joint investigation by the CRA and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, dubbed Collecteur Project, which targeted a money laundering and tax evasion scheme.

The CRA helps to prevent, detect and disrupt money laundering by investigating suspected cases of tax evasion, tax fraud and other serious violations of Canada’s tax laws. For the five-year period, from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2022, the courts convicted 140 taxpayers for tax evasion of more than $72.3 million in federal taxes evaded. These convictions resulted in sentences totalling almost $17.1 million in court fines. Of the 140 convictions, 64 individuals were sent to jail for a total time of 119 years.

In addition to the court imposed fines and/or jail sentences, convicted taxpayers have to pay the full amount of tax owing, plus related interest and any penalties assessed by the CRA.

The CRA is dedicated to maintaining the integrity of Canada’s tax system, thereby contributing to the social and economic well-being of Canadians. The CRA continues to aggressively pursue tax evasion, and false claims with all the tools available to it. The CRA works to make sure that individuals and businesses report all income earned and only claim benefits to which they are entitled, so that important benefit programs can be administered to those who need them. Any individual or business who underreports income, or claims losses or benefits to which they are not entitled may have to repay the benefit amounts and may be subject to other possible action.

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

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Media Relations
Canada Revenue Agency
613-948-8366
cra-arc.media@cra-arc.gc.ca

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