Ex-CRA agent gets jail time for collecting child benefit for 61 "fictitious" kids
A Quebec man who formerly processed child benefit applications for the CRA has been sentenced to jail time for falsely claiming tax credits and benefits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that on Friday, October 20, Wayne Kendall Jr. was sentenced at the Trois-Rivières Courthouse to 18 months behind bars, followed by a two-year probation.
In a press release, the federal agency said that Kendall Jr. had pleaded guilty to making false or deceptive statements and forgery on March 10, 2023.
During an investigation, it was found that from 2015 to 2018, Kendall Jr. had fraudulently obtained over $377,000 by submitting false claims for tax credits and benefits.
“He impersonated 18 different individuals in order to claim tax credits and benefits for a total of 61 fictitious children and then deposited the money in various bank accounts he had opened under false identities,” the CRA shared.
The perpetrator’s LinkedIn profile shows that he worked with the CRA from February 2009 to December 2014. It claims that aside from his role in CCB application processing, Kendall Jr. also worked as a Visual Basic Programmer.”
“I ended up as an ad-hoc VB programmer for the department after my employer realized how some efficiency tools I had developed were putting us significantly ahead in productivity compared to other tax centers in Canada,” he states on his profile.
“Mr. Kendall Jr. took advantage of his employment with the CRA to illegally obtain the data of the impersonated identities, but he was no longer employed by the CRA when he carried out the scheme,” the agency said.
The CRA revealed between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2023, there were 31 convictions for tax evasion, with court-imposed fines totalling $6,925,440. The total owed federal tax payments amounted to $8,142,512.
Twelve of those convicted were put behind bars for a total of 32.7 years.
“In addition to the court-imposed fines and/or jail sentences, convicted taxpayers have to pay the full amount of tax owing, plus related interest and any penalties assessed by the CRA,” the agency warned.
Earlier in September, the CRA fired 120 staff members who “inappropriately” claimed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) while employed with the organization.
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