Local businessman who bribed CRA employee seeks new lawyer
A Montreal businessman who admitted this year that he bribed a Canada Revenue Agency employee before and after the man became an undercover agent in an RCMP investigation is looking for a new lawyer before his case enters the sentencing stage.
A sentence hearing for Reza Tehrani, 60, has been put off four times since May 22, when he entered guilty pleas to seven charges filed against him in 2012.
The former owner of trade school Institut Technique Aviron de Montréal admitted he began bribing Jean- Guy Ouellette of the CRA beginning in 2005.
Tehrani paid Ouellette $10,000 because wanted to have $140,000 in scientific research development tax credits transferred to him instead of his partners in a company.
Tehrani bribed Ouellette again in the years that followed — unaware that by 2011, Ouellette had agreed to work undercover for the RCMP as part of an investigation into allegations that several Montreal CRA auditors were corrupt.
Tehrani offered Ouellette $60,000 to avoid paying more than $2.7 million in taxes owed by him and his trade school.
A common suggestion on a possible sentence for Tehrani was to have been presented in late in May, but that has yet to happen.
Last week, Tehrani informed Quebec Court Judge Dominque Joly that he is looking for a new lawyer to represent him.