The result of filing nearly $3 million in false claims was a fraud of about $600,000 in tax revenue owed to the Government of Canada, Lester found at the time.
A man is facing sentencing after filing over $2.9 Million in false tax claims
Lester relied on evidence from 11 of Sharma’s 16 former clients who testified that he filed false or inflated expenses on their behalf when submitting both professional and personal income tax returns for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. During the trial in the fall of 2016, there were more than 500 documents filed as evidence. Court also heard testimony from Canada Revenue Agency employees.
In February 2010, Sharma was convicted of fraud and uttering a forged document in a different scheme that involved stealing $150,000 in income-tax payments. He pleaded guilty in that case after being arrested in Arizona and extradited back to Canada, and was handed a 15-month jail sentence.
The three-day sentencing hearing on the 2017 fraud conviction is set to begin Sept. 13.
