A Canadian man has been sentenced to more than 11 years in prison by a U.S. judge after being found guilty for his part in a tax fraud scheme, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Monday.
Kevin Cyster, 52, of Burlington, Ont., was sentenced to serve 135 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay US$3.5 million in restitution to the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in connection with a scheme to defraud the IRS by a group of Canadians.
Back in September, Cyster was convicted by a federal jury of one count of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and commit theft of government funds, one count of making a false claim against the U.S., and two counts of transferring stolen money in foreign commerce.
See: Canadian ringleader convicted in U.S. tax fraud case
According to court documents and testimony at trial, “Cyster was part of a group of Canadian citizens” that filed fraudulent U.S. tax returns, which falsely claimed that nearly US$10 million in federal income taxes had been withheld on their behalf by various Canadian financial institutions and paid over to the IRS, the DoJ announcement says.
Testimony at trial revealed that the Canadian group’s filings were created and filed with the IRS by a California man, Ronald Brekke, and not by the financial institutions, says the DoJ announcement, and the IRS paid out more than US$3.5 million of the requested refunds before detecting the fraud.
Back in June 2012, Brekke was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a jury convicted him of promoting the scheme. Another Canadian, Renee Jarvis, 51, pled guilty to conspiracy to defraud back in 2014, the DoJ announcement says. Her sentencing is set for Jan. 12.