Controversial ex-Canadian MP Sukh Dhaliwal charged with tax evasion

Saturday, 09/02/2013

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/news/Controversial-ex_Canadian-MP-Sukh-Dhaliwal-charged-with-tax-evasion.html

CHANDIGARH: In a major embarrassment to the Punjabi community living in Canada in general and the Liberal Party in particular, controversial politician and former Canadian MP Sukh Dhaliwal, has been charged on six counts for tax evasion while his wife Roni has been charged for four counts.

And all this is alleged to have happened mostly during the period he was the Liberal Party MP representing Newton-North Delta between 2006 and 2011. If proved, these charges can lead Sukh Dhaliwal to one year in jail and a maximum fine of $25000.

Sukh, according to reports published in all the Canadian newspapers, has taken full responsibility. However, he has claimed that he was not directly responsible for the day to day operations of his company Genco Consultants Inc and the people responsible had not done their job properly.

The grave charges of tax evasion have raised the doubts about his being able to contest the provincial elections, scheduled to be held in May, from Surrey-Panorama riding as the Liberal Party candidate. However, he was nominated for the riding after two weeks of having been charged with the tax evasion.

The charges read, Sukh Dhaliwal “being director of Genco Consultants Inc... did unlawfully direct authorize, assent to, acquiesce in or participate in Genco Consultant Inc.'s failure to file a completed Corporate Income Tax Return on Form T2" for the years 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010.

The charges against Dhaliwal were sworn on Oct. 15, 2012, just two weeks before the British Columbia Liberals announced him to be the candidate for the Surrey-Panorama riding for this May's election.

Interestingly he is running the election on the issue of fiscal responsibility. Newspaper reports quoted him saying, when asked how he reconciles that with charges of failure to file income taxes, he wasn't in charge of the day-to-day business of the company. "But as I was director, I take full responsibility," he was quoted having said.

However, raising questions about his defence he may not have been in charge of daily operations but the indictment states a "notice of requirement was served personally on him on August 24, 2011..."

According to B.C. Registry Services, while Sukh Dhaliwal himself is the president, his wife Roni is secretary of Genco Consultants Inc. She is facing 14 charges under the Income Tax Act, according to court documents.

Both Sukh and Roni were arraigned on December 17, and were scheduled to again be in court 0n February 7 to fix a date. Their next court date is Feb. 21.

Sukh Dhaliwal was an MP for Newton-North Delta from 2007 to 2011. He lost in May 2011 federal elections to Jinny Simms of New Democratic Party.

It's not the first time that Sukh Dhaliwal has courted controversy. In 2008, when he was an MP, he wrote a letter of support for international drug trafficker Ranjit Cheema to California District Judge Stephen Wilson urging him to give Cheema a chance at rehabilitation. Dhaliwal described Cheema as a man who would one day return to his family in Canada and seemed committed to rehabilitation.

"I personally believe, along with tougher laws, rehabilitation is fundamentally essential to make our society, our country, and our planet a better place to live," Dhaliwal wrote in the letter on Government of Canada letterhead. "I have no doubt that if he (Cheema) is given support and direction, he will be a strong, active member of his community in years to come."

Despite the support, Cheema was sentenced in California to five years in prison for conspiring to smuggle 200 kilograms of heroin from Pakistan to North America in 1998. Dhaliwal, when confronted about the correspondence in the middle of a re-election campaign, regretted not having checked with police before writing the letter.

Cheema was gunned down in Vancouver last May in an inter-gang rivalry.

Dhaliwal also became a persona non grata in India after he presented an anti-India petition in the House of Commons demanding that the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in New Delhi be recognised as genocide.