A Quebec man has been fined almost $1 million and sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud. Faber Augusto Calderon Ardila, a resident of Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., was found guilty of obtaining or attempting to obtain refunds of the Quebec Sales Tax (QST) and the Goods and Services Tax (GST), “while knowing he was not entitled to them,” Revenu Québec said Thursday. The provincial tax regulator said in a news release that, according to an investigation, the fraudulent scheme involved creating 78 shell companies with no commercial activity for the sole purpose of obtaining the tax refunds. “This scheme enabled Mr. Calderon Ardila to cash, in less than 10 months, 191 tax refund checks at a butcher shop in Drummondville, which also served as a currency exchange office. These checks totalled nearly $800,000,” Revenu Québec said. The Court of Quebec sentenced Calderon Ardila to a fine of $665,476 in connection with the QST refunds and a 48-month prison sentence. He also received a second fine of $260,291 and a 24-month prison term for the GST refunds, to be served concurrently with the first sentence. Revenu Québec said fighting tax fraud is a matter of fairness for the vast majority of the population and businesses that pay their fair share.
