RCMP expecting to get data on tax evaders

Will cheaters who hid money be in trouble? Top Mountie says ‘I’d like to think so’

OTTAWA— The RCMP says it expects to soon get its hands on the Panama Papers revealing offshore companies and bank accounts around the world, though it was coy about how it intends to obtain the documents.

Yet asked if people who are deliberately hiding their money to evade taxes could be in trouble, RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said “I’d like to think so.”

Paulson appeared with several of his top deputies at the Senate standing committee on national security and defence Monday and outlined challenges the force faces in trying to obtain evidence abroad to pursue charges when it comes to terrorist financing. But when Conservative Sen. Claude Carignan asked about the Panama Papers, RCMP deputy commissioner Mike Cabana, in charge of federal policing, said the RCMP moved quickly after their publication.

“As soon as we learned of the existence of those documents we started discussions with our foreign partners in order to get our hands on copies of those documents.

"Those discussions are still underway; we have received confirmation that we are going to receive the documents in their entirety,” Cabana said.

Cabana said the RCMP is working with “domestic partners here in Canada” including FINTRAC, the agency that tracks money-laundering and other suspicious financial transactions, “so that once we get all of the documents we will be able to quickly analyze” them.

“I didn’t say we had them,” Paulson said later.

“We are trying to get them. We’re interested in getting our hands on them and what criminality they may represent, and what investigations we should pursue, we’re in partnership with a number of people.”

Asked if he is seeking judicial warrants to seize data or documentation from the International Consortium of Journalists or media involved in the reporting, Paulson dodged a direct answer.

He said he was “uncomfortable” discussing details of what actions the RCMP might take around the documents.

“There’s a broad understanding of what they represent and there is a tremendous suggestions (sic) of criminality and we’re going to have to proceed very carefully. Typically when we do investigations of these types we like to have some discretion, the ability to manage that,” Paulson said.

On May 9, the International Consortium of Journalists has scheduled a partial release of corporation names and associated names, but not individual records, data, documents or passports associated with its trove.

Reporter Rob Cribb, who has led the Star’s reporting on the documents as a partner in the media consortium, said nobody in the RCMP has contacted the Star, but nearly two dozen national tax authorities around the world, including the Canada Revenue Agency, have made formal requests of media involved.

The Star and the CBC have declined to turn over the documents to the CRA.

Cabana said the RCMP has 57 officers deployed in 30 countries who work either as liaison officers or analysts with other agencies on investigations of interest to Canada, or to promote information-sharing.

Paulson said the RCMP faces “huge challenges” in pursuing terrorist financing cases related to the difficulty of gathering evidence abroad.

The RCMP managers also outlined how the force is “living within” its budget while building a case for more funds to juggle national security investigations along with other investigative operations.

RCMP deputy commissioner Mike Cabana said the RCMP moved quickly after the publication of the Panama Papers data leak