TORONTO - Six Ontario residents are facing charges after RCMP say the federal taxman was allegedly defrauded of upwards of $200-million in a bogus investment scheme that stretched across the country.
Police say their investigation began in April 2012 when they received information about people involved in a possible "tax avoidance scheme."
The Mounties say they have determined that at least 493 people participated in the alleged scheme, losing between one-thousand and 300-thousand dollars per investment.
Sergeant Richard Rollings says that more than five-thousand investors had participated in the alleged fraud since 2004, and that they received at least 200 million dollars in rebates from the Canada Revenue Agency for what were illegitimate claims.
Rollings says investors across Canada were led to believe they could legitimately purchase a company's business losses that could then be used to lower their taxable incomes at five times the investment's value.
However, police allege many of these losses were fraudulent.
The six people arrested are each charged with two counts of fraud over five-thousand dollars and one count of commission of an offence for a criminal organization.
Police say the investigation is ongoing and further arrests and charges are possible.
