No, this isn’t the standard rip-off, it was a clever one on a large scale that went on for a decade. It’s an old story now (from last week), but still worth reporting. (Hat tip: Janet)
From the National Post:
TORONTO — The RCMP has arrested a Quebec immigration consultant accused of providing Canadian citizenship documents to hundreds of people in the Middle East so they could collect benefits and tax refunds from Ottawa.
Ahmad El-Akhal, 62, was arrested Thursday morning following a 2-1/2-year investigation by the RCMP’s Immigration and Passport and Commercial Crimes sections. His wife was also arrested as well as a suspected accomplice in Mississauga.
The alleged fraud ring is accused of securing immigrant status and citizenship for more than 300 residents of Lebanon and other Middle East countries and then helping them bilk the Canadian government of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“Once they received documents this guy would fill out the tax returns and documents to get benefits back in the names of these people,” said RCMP Sgt. Marc LaPorte. “They were getting tax refunds, Goods and Services Tax rebates, child credit tax benefits, so the whole gamut.”
It took Canadian officials nearly a decade to figure out that something was wrong when hundreds of immigrants gave 29 addresses on documents.
The alleged crimes go back as far as 1999. The investigation began in 2008 after Citizenship and Immigration Canada noticed that 320 permanent residence applicants had given the same 29 home addresses in Canada.
Wealth redistribution anyone?
I swear there are some really smart Muslims who know every trick in the book (heck, they write the book!) on how to rip-off the infidel.