CRA descends upon West Van in raid tied to Panama Papers

Someone in West Vancouver was paid a Panama Papers-related visit by officials from the Canada Revenue Agency on Wednesday. We just don’t know who.

In a media release, the CRA announced that with the help of the West Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP, it had executed a search warrant Wednesday as part 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.”

When asked if it could reveal who might have been the target of this search — or if there was more than one location — a spokesperson said: “The CRA cannot provide further details concerning this ongoing investigation. This includes providing details on the exact location of the searches.

“The CRA can confirm that there have been no charges laid to date. As with any criminal investigation undertaken by law enforcement bodies, including the CRA, these can be complex and require years to complete.”

Investigators also made raids in Calgary and the Toronto area on Wednesday as part of the same operation, “searching for evidence with respect to the commission of offences against the Income Tax Act and the Excise Tax Act.”

A December 2016 report from anti-corruption group Transparency International reported that Mossack Fonseca had identified Canada “as an attractive place to set up anonymous companies.” According to the report, half of Vancouver’s 100 most expensive homes at the time had been bought using shell companies or other financial tools that obscured the identity of the true owners.