Senior civil servant charged in income trust leak
STEVEN CHASE
Globe and Mail Update
theglobeandmail.com
Globe and Mail Update — The RCMP have laid criminal charges against a federal Finance official following a 14-month probe into whether notice of the former Liberal government's plans for income trusts was leaked in advance.
Serge Nadeau, general director of tax policy, analysis, faces a charge of criminal breach of trust.
“It is alleged that he used confidential Government of Canada information for the purchase of securities which gave him a personal benefit,” the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.
The charges against a civil servant have taken the probe in a different direction than it had first set out in the late fall of 2005, when the NDP first requested the RCMP probe allegations that some Liberal partisan in Paul Martin's government had given markets advance notice of measures on trusts.
Trading of income trusts and related stocks spiked in the hours preceding a greatly anticipated announcement by former Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on Nov. 23, 2005.
The news, which helped shape the 2005-2006 market for trusts, was that the Liberals would not slap a tax on the investment vehicle, as feared, but would enact a politically popular cut in corporate dividend taxes to reduce an advantage that trusts have had in the market.
All that changed in October, 2006, however, when the Conservative government that replaced Paul Martin's regime announced a hefty tax on trusts which has effectively killed the future for most of these investment vehicles.
More to come. |
