More charges laid in CRA corruption probe

Five men, including three former Canada Revenue Agency employees, have been summoned to appear in court this spring as the RCMP wraps up its probe of alleged corruption at the agency’s office in Montreal.

The RCMP’s C Division in Montreal announced the new charges on Monday. They involve three Canada Revenue Agency employees who were investigated for allegedly helping companies file false tax-credit claims through a private company based in LaSalle, Que.

According to the Quebec business registry, the firm, Delvex Company, was owned by Marcello Furgiuele, 38, one of the five men who were ordered to appear in court on April 7.

According to court documents already filed in other cases related to the same RCMP probe, dubbed Project Coche (French for “Coach”), the elder brother and two other former CRA employees — Americo Comparelli, 44, and Antonio Girardi, 49 — were secret shareholders in Delvex. The allegations meant that while the trio worked for CRA, they allegedly had an interest in a private company that coached firms on how to file false tax credit claims. In a news release, the RCMP allege that “Delvex later received about 25 per cent of the total value of the fraudulent tax credits claims granted by the CRA.”

The fifth man alleged to be a “phantom shareholder” in Delvex is Francesco Bruno, 52, the head of BT Céramiques Inc.

Bruno is charged in at least two other major tax evasion cases and, in 2011, pleaded guilty to filing fake invoices to help companies, owned at the time by construction magnate Antonio (Tony) Accurso, reduce their reported revenues.

Bruno and companies he owned were fined more than $1.2 million for violations of the federal Income Tax Act.