Tax evasion | A dentist would have lent 1.5 million to his brother struggling with the underworld

A dentist suspected of tax evasion allegedly gave his brother $1.5 million to rescue him from the clutches of organized crime, according to Revenue Canada documents filed at the courthouse.

Hugo Joncas
The Press

Doctor Hanna Elian is Tony Elian’s brother. This former owner of a men’s clothing store in downtown Montreal was shot in the foot by a 12-gauge shotgun in March 2018.

Police arrested a suspect, but released him after concluding they did not have the real perpetrator.

The bombing was just the latest in a series of serious crimes against Tony Elian and his properties from 2015 to 2018, following the torching of his car, a Molotov cocktail and a parcel bomb in his shop.

Hanna Elian would have used part of the money he had hidden to “give 1.5 million to the company of his brother Tony who was the victim of extortion from the mafia”, according to the denunciation of a tax investigator . Revenue Canada filed it in court seeking a production order from the Royal Bank.

To help her brother, Hanna Elian would have drawn in particular from an undeclared bank account where $ 371,560 would have accumulated tax-free.

Three-year verification

The information the tax authorities obtained came from Hanna Elian’s lawyers themselves, the document says. By disclosing them to the government, they were trying to offer its cooperation in the context of a tax audit for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.

“Their client is very concerned about criminal investigations,” Revenue Canada said in its statement. He would like to make an agreement which would imply the renunciation to send the file to the criminal investigations against his collaboration. »

Bad luck: Revenue Canada has instead ruled “that it is not possible to make such an agreement” and that its sleuths would look into the case of the dentist.

Joined by The Press, Hanna Elian says he has already refunded the money that Ottawa claimed after his audit. For the rest, he assures us that the tax declaration contains “nothing true”.

He insists: “My brother, it’s nothing but personal problems. The government has absolutely nothing against my brother or me. »

In addition to helping Tony Elian, the dentist would have used part of his hidden funds to “buy a condo for his son” and “invest in the stock market”, according to the tax declaration.

“Incorrect summary”, says his lawyer

Joined by The PressHanna Elian’s attorney, Paul Ryan, says the IRS sworn statement contains “a very condensed summary of lengthy discussions.”

“This summary is both imprecise and incorrect in several respects, in addition to containing significant omissions,” he says.

“It is generally recognized that such negotiations are of a confidential nature and it is therefore very surprising that they are thus summed up in a legal proceeding, the content of which is made available to the public, without any precautions in this regard. »