West Vancouver man ordered to serve 29-month jail sentence for tax evasion
Posted October 12, 2022 8:36 pm.
A West Vancouver businessman has been ordered to serve a 29-month jail sentence for tax evasion after his conviction was upheld by the B.C. Court of Appeal.
Michael Curt Helmut Scholz was originally sentenced in Feb. 2021.
Scholz is convicted of two counts of uttering forged documents and three counts of tax-related offences under the Excise Tax Act, according to a Tuesday news release from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA).
The B.C. Court of Appeal dismissed Scholz’s appeal late last month.
A CRA investigation found that Scholz had submitted forged documents to obtain benefits related to the construction of a home in West Vancouver.
“Mr. Scholz forged a bare trust agreement to conceal the property’s true ownership and to support his claim of ineligible input tax credits related to the costs for the residence’s construction and design,” the CRA said in its release.
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It adds Scholz forged a lease agreement to decrease the assessed value of the property.
In addition to his 29-month prison sentence, Scholz will be forced to pay a total fine of $644,975.71, which the CRA says is equal to the amount of taxes he didn’t pay.
The CRA said that between April 1, 2021 and March 31, 23 people across the country were found guilty of evading more than $4.4 million in federal taxes, and 10 of the 23 convictions led to a combined total of 15.3 years of jail times.
