Two men from British Columbia’s Fraser Valley have been convicted of fraud charges in connection with a series of scams that defrauded the federal government of millions in GST refunds.
A B.C. Supreme Court judge delivered her decision in New Westminster Thursday morning.
Sikander Singh Bath, of Mission, and Manjit Singh Khangura, of Abbotsford, were found guilty respectively of six counts and three counts of fraud over $5,000. They each faced 20 fraud charges and two charges of money laundering.
The charges relate to incidents dating from 1995 to 1997.
The Crown alleged that Bath, Khangura and others created or acquired 20 companies during that time and fraudulently claimed and received more than $23 million in refunds for GST input tax credits.
Crown alleged that the companies — which claimed to have made large exports of lumber, shake and shingle products — were shams and never did any real business. The amounts of the alleged frauds ranged from $400,000 to $2.3 million.
However, Justice Heather Holmes said in her 104-page judgment that only 13 companies were proven to be shams.
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