Calgary businessman tied to Panama Papers via search warrants and CRA investigation

A Calgary businessman was linked to a massive document leak and taxevasion investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency on Thursday.

Properties owned by Wen Tao Yang, 50, and his wife, Rong Catherine Lu, were identified as locations the CRA searched in relation to the investigation, according to court documents made public Thursday.

Yang lives in Calgary, while Lu resides in Vancouver, the CRA said.

Together, they are shareholders in several Canadian companies and other companies registered in the British Virgin Islands and China. The two are also each listed as shareholders in other Canadian and foreign corporations, the CRA said.

Their properties in Calgary, Vancouver and the Toronto area were searched by the CRA in connection to the Panama Papers, a 2016 anonymous leak of more than 11 million documents that revealed financial details of thousands of offshore entities.

“The CRA is committed to protecting Canada’s revenue base and … (taking) appropriate action to address all cases of non-compliance with Canada’s tax laws,” the agency said in a statement Thursday. “On Feb. 14, 2018, the CRA announced that it conducted searches in multiple locations during the course of an offshore tax evasion criminal investigation related to the data leak from the Panamanian law firm and corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, made public in the Panama Papers.”

In documents filed to support the search warrant, the CRA says it was gathering “evidence to determine if the alleged offences were committed and if so, to prove the offences in court proceedings.”

It identified “a series of transactions involving foreign corporations and Wen Tao Yang.” Two transfers, in particular, totalling about $2.6 million, were highlighted. “One of the transfers is described as ‘consulting fees,’” the CRA said in the court document. “The source of these funds was obscured because there were several transfers through foreign bank accounts prior to the funds being deposited to the Canadian bank accounts held by Wen Tao Yang and Rong Catherine Lu.”

The CRA investigator preparing the court documents said the information gathered pointed to “evaded income tax.”

In its Thursday statement, the CRA added, “This investigation is one of the 42 international/offshore tax evasion cases that CRA is currently investigating which involve complex structures and potentially multi-million dollars in taxes evaded.”