Owners of now defunct restaurant plead not guilty to charges after almost three-year investigation by the CRA
A Cape Breton family accused of a $3.6 million tax fraud case is taking on the complex criminal trial with no lawyers, according to a report by CBC.
The four women are best known for operating a now defunct restaurant on Boularderie Island in Cape Breton known as Spaghetti Benders. Lydia Saker and her daughters Georgette Young, Nadia Saker and Angela MacDonald have pleaded not guilty to a slew of fraud charges that followed a nearly three-year investigation by the Canada Revenue Agency.
The women and 10 companies under their control allegedly claimed $56 million dollars in sales on products such as cookbooks, salad dressings, frozen dinners and fur coats. The fraud is related to GST and HST refunds that the agency alleges was a scheme that escalated in size between January 2011 and July 2015.
The companies were paid refunds totalling $276,000, according to court records, and were denied $3 million after CRA auditors became suspicious.
Prosecutors have said eight bankers boxes worth of documents containing information about the companies were collected as part of the case.
