SYDNEY – A Cape Breton mother and her three daughters were removed from Sydney Justice Center on Thursday with handcuffs and leg shackles after being sentenced to federal prison terms.
All four were convicted in February of 10 counts of fraud and 10 counts of making false GST claims. Ten other crimes were suspended.
Supreme Court Judge Robin Gogan also imposed fines on the four defendants.
Lydia Saker, 77, of Sydney Mines, was fined $ 335,099; Nadia Saker, 45, of Leitches Creek, will pay a $ 493,620 fine, while Angela MacDonald, 47, of Sydney Mines, will pay a $ 961,186 fine.
For Georgette Young, 50, of North Sydney, who was considered the leader of the fraud scheme, the fine imposed amounted to $ 1,997,601.
Lydia Saker was sentenced to serve a 24-month sentence, while Nadia Saker and Angela MacDonald must serve a 36-month sentence. Young must serve a 48-month sentence.
“This was a large-scale organized criminal fraud committed against the Canadian public,” Gogan said in delivering the sentence.
He said the criminals made a mockery of the Canadian tax system that depends on the integrity of its citizens.
The fines imposed were those recommended by federal prosecutors Mark Donohoe and Constantin Draghici-Vasilescu and prison sentences were also within the range suggested by the Crown.
Defendants were represented during the 24-day trial and showed no reaction to the imposition of the sentence.
The crimes took place between January 2011 and July 2015.
Evidence from the trial indicated that some of the 10 family businesses did not have bank accounts or only opened an account when it became known that their claims were being reviewed by the Canada Tax Agency.
Lydia Saker, the mother of Georgette Young, Angela Macdonald and Nadia Saker, received a two-year federal prison sentence for her role in the multimillion-dollar fraud case. PHOTO POST OF CAP BRETON – Cape Breton Post
WITHOUT EMPLOYEES
A CRA audit found no evidence of contracts with suppliers or customer lists and there were no employees or manufacturing facilities. Family-run businesses sold a range of items, such as wigs, salad dressings, children’s clothing, and cookbooks.
Upon filing false receipts for GST rebates, the family told CRA auditors that all transactions were completed in cash, but that there was no documentation to assess the volume of business being conducted. There were no electronic records. Young proved to be the accountant of all family businesses.
“In the mountains of financial evidence being offered to this court for consideration, it is difficult to identify any actual transaction or genuine business activity,” Gogan said in his verdict decision.
In his presentation to the court, Donohoe said the plan began with only small amounts being claimed for a refund, but soon multiplied as the family doubled and claimed higher amounts.
Nadia Saker is being taken in a sheriff’s van after leaving Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court in Sydney on Thursday. Saker received a three-year prison sentence for his role in a multimillion-dollar fraud case. PHOTO POST OF CAP BRETON – Cape Breton Post
One of the family businesses filed a $ 440,000 refund for more than $ 3 million in food sales over four months.
“That was a complete fabrication and everyone knew what was going on,” Donohoe said.
The sentence was scheduled for May, but was postponed until Wednesday to give criminals more time to prepare their sentence submissions.
They arrived in court on Wednesday requesting another postponement to secure medical records from the 1990s. Young told the court she and her family suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder after witnessing domestic abuse while growing up.
In addition, Young said, the medication he has been taking for years can cause psychosis that would affect his thinking.
Gogan noted that the family had been acquiring this information since February and that there was no mention of PTSD in any of the four pre-sentence reports. Each offender reported that he had not experienced any mental health issues in the reports.
Young even complained of having problems with the printer that further delayed the playback of medical reports.
When Gogan asked how long the family needed, Young replied that he did not know.
Donohoe said the Crown was opposed to any postponement and that the family was simply taking the plunge to delay the inevitable.
Gogan denied the deferral offer.
Angela Macdonald is headed from the Sydney Justice Center on Thursday afternoon. She was sentenced to three years in federal prison for a multimillion-dollar fraud plan. Between 2011 and 2015, Macdonald, his two sisters and his mother filed false GST statements claiming a total of $ 20,628,805. Of that amount, the Canada Tax Agency paid a total of $ 357,359 in refunds and credits. PHOTO POST OF CAP BRETON – Cape Breton Post
NO REAL BUSINESS
During the period that included the offenses, the defendant filed false GST statements claiming a combined refund of $ 20,628,805. Of that amount, the CRA paid $ 275,960 in repayments and allocated an additional $ 81,399 as credit to other amounts due to the agency, meaning the family and their businesses received $ 357,359.
“Young was the conductor of the orchestra, but her mother and siblings played there. She was certainly the manager of the operation, controlling the mixing and blending of the related companies as needed to achieve the ultimate goal, ”the judge said in her verdict decision.
“In the mountains of financial evidence being offered to this court for consideration, it is difficult to identify any actual transaction or genuine business activity,” Gogan said in his verdict decision.
In his court appearance, Donohoe said the family would send receipts from real, fictitious companies that allegedly bought a variety of products. Representatives of some of these companies stated that they had never placed any order with any of the family’s stable companies. One representative stated that he would never order large volumes of salad dressing because he makes his own at home.
Young had previously stated that the family plans to appeal the verdict.
Donohue said as long as criminals make an effort to pay their fines, the Crown will not impose other restrictions, but if no effort is made or shown, there are other measures that could be implemented.
Georgette Young, considered the leader of the multimillion-dollar fraud scheme with her sisters Angela Macdonald and Nadia Saker, along with her mother Lydia Saker, received a four-year federal prison sentence on Thursday in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court in Sydney. PHOTO POST OF CAP BRETON – Cape Breton Post