Canadians in offshore leak

CBC News initially reported there were at least 450 Canadians among the 130,000 people named in the huge trove of leaked offshore financial records. Further investigation has turned up at least 100 more, and it is believed additional names will continue to be unearthed as the 2.5 million records are parsed.The minister and CRA officials repeated a half-dozen times in the ensuing weeks that they wanted the CBC and ICIJ to hand over the names.Shea finally announced May 10 that "I have reached out to the government of the United Kingdom and secured a commitment that information relevant to Canada stemming from this data will be shared."Britain, the U.S. and Australia had obtained the leaked documents more than a year and half prior, and had used them to quietly launch criminal investigations against wealthy taxpayers hiding money in some of the world's most secretive jurisdictions.Both Britain and the U.S. have shelled out for such information in the past. Canada has never done so."We don't seem to be the first one to act," said Liberal Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette, deputy chair of the Senate banking committee. "I was told in some cases people were willing to release the information as a whistleblower and the government refused the information."

Revenue Canada won't comment

CBC News has asked the Canada Revenue Agency and the minister multiple times whether the agency turned down an offer of the leaked information."I can't answer that," was Shea's reply during a May 10 scrum outside the House of Commons.
Revenue Minister Gail Shea said in May that she was 'not aware' of what data was offered to the Canada Revenue Agency.Revenue Minister Gail Shea said in May that she was 'not aware' of what data was offered to the Canada Revenue Agency. (CBC)"Because you don't know or you don't want to say?" a reporter inquired."I'm not aware of what data we were offered," Shea responded.The CRA declined to answer questions about the leak again last week, saying in an email that it "cannot comment on leads."Its director general of criminal investigations did confirm, however, that until the most recent federal budget, the tax agency would not reward whistleblowers. The budget ushered in a plan to pay tipsters up to 15 per cent where the CRA recovers more than $100,000 from someone using offshore accounts to dodge their tax obligations."Previous to this measure that's been introduced, the agency did not pay for information," Claude St-Pierre said in an interview last week.Asked specifically whether that prevented the agency from acquiring the latest offshore leak, St-Pierre said, "I can't answer that."

Rejected 2007 leak

It's not the first time the Canada Revenue Agency was approached with confidential tax-haven financial files.
CBC News has learned that the agency was approached by the whistleblower behind the 2007 data leak at Liechtenstein's LGT Bank, but rejected his offer to turn over a list of 106 Canadians who had stashed their money in the European tax haven.Heinrich Kieber, the source of that leak, wanted money as well but the agency wouldn't pay. In the end, he got $5.5 million from Germany and unspecified sums from Britain and the U.S. to supply DVDs full of records on his former employer's clients.The Canada Revenue Agency eventually obtained the information from its partner tax agencies, and used it to launch dozens of audits, finding $22.4 million in unpaid taxes and so far recouping $8 million of that. Germany says it has collected hundreds of millions of dollars.A third major disclosure of offshore banking records, in 2008, saw the U.S. obtain the account information of 4,500 Americans with money stashed in Switzerland. In that case, the banker at Swiss giant UBS who alerted the U.S. Internal Revenue Service was jailed for aiding tax evasion, but later collected a $104-million US whistleblower award.The Canada Revenue Agency’s St-Pierre said he welcomed the newly bestowed power to pay for such leaks."The whistleblower program that is focused on the international aspect of this will be very helpful in receiving additional information that will allow us to do an even better job of addressing international tax evasion," he said.If you have more information on this story, or other investigative tips to pass on, please email investigations@cbc.ca.
With files from CBC's Alison Crawford