Corruption and fraud have no borders. Tarek Hamza, a Montreal businessman of Tunisian origin and president of the El Omrane sports youth football club, has just been sentenced to three years in prison and fines of nearly three million Canadian dollars for a massive tax fraud scheme, reports the Journal de Montréal in its edition yesterday.
According to the Court of Quebec, Hamza has managed its personnel recruitment company, Otika services, like a real fraud machine, manufacturing no less than 674 false invoices between 2013 and 2016, of a total value of 2.6 million dollars. The objective: to fraudulently claim tax credits and artificially reduce its taxable income.
Justice Mélanie Hébert firmly condemned these actions, stressing that the fraud deprived the Treasury of 725,000 dollars and that Hamza acts were repetitive and premeditated. Worse still, the fraudster has multiplied the ploys to hide his heritage, hiding the purchase of a luxury villa in Montreal for $ 5.2 million and claiming not to have a bank account to escape tax seizures, reports the same source.
Ironically, this sulphurous entrepreneur who appears as a benefactor of Tunisian football was once beneficiary of social assistance. Today, he faces the reality of his actions.
This case recalls the importance of increased vigilance in the face of fraudulent practices and underlines the need for economic transparency, both in Tunisia and internationally.
