editor, Author at Monitor Telegram

That sales tax you pay on your meal? Some restaurants keep it, using illegal ‘zappers’

December 6, 2017

WASHINGTON
States nationwide are losing billions of dollars in sales tax revenue to restaurants and other businesses that deploy high-tech methods to evade tax collectors, including cloud-based computing systems originating in Canada, China and other foreign countries.

The cross-border fraud is depriving U.S. states of money they could be using for education, law enforcement and other services. But to date, there’s been little coordinated attempt to root out the offshore operators that assist rogue retailers in under-reporting their sales, especially those handled in cash.

Brampton power plant ‘gamed’ Ontario electricity system for millions, fined $10M

December 6, 2017

A Brampton gas plant that the government admits “gamed” Ontario’s electricity system for $120 million in overbillings will pocket $10 million despite a $10 million fine and $100 million repayment order.

The situation uncovered in a month-old Ontario Energy Board report Tuesday left Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals on the defensive with a provincial election just six months away.

Opposition parties raised concerns the 2015 settlement with the Goreway Station Partnership — which rejects assertions it “deliberately” gamed ratepayers — was hushed up for political reasons and called for a deeper investigation, possibly by police.

Disgraced doc bilked OHIP for over $2 million through bogus billings: College

December 6, 2017

Former Order of Canada recipient Dr. Ranjit Kumar Chandra fleeced OHIP for more than $2 million through a false billings scheme in which he paid patients and others for their health card numbers, a college prosecutor alleged Wednesday.

Dr. Chandra, 79, is in ailing health and living in India and will no longer practise in Ontario. He’s denying the allegations of professional misconduct as he’s being tried in absentia at a College of Physicians and Surgeons disciplinary hearing.

Former Fraser Health chief Dr. Nigel Murray facing fraud probe in New Zealand over expense claims

December 5, 2017

Dr. Nigel Murray, the former chief executive officer of Fraser Health who resigned three years ago from his high-paid post in B.C. to take a similar job in New Zealand, has resigned again and remains under a cloud of suspicion there over excessive, unauthorized expense claims.

Murray was the highest paid ($444,000 total compensation) health authority CEO when he worked in B.C. from 2007 to 2014. He then moved back to his native New Zealand but resigned as the chief of the Waikato district board last month after an independent inquiry found numerous potential breaches of his financial obligations.

Twenty Individuals – Including Four Doctors – Charged with Enterprise Corruption in Massive $146 Million Health Care Fraud

December 5, 2017

Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez, together with United States Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General New York region Special Agent in Charge Scott J. Lampert, New York City Department of Social Services Commissioner Steven Banks, New York State Medicaid Inspector General Dennis Rosen and New York State Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo today announced that four doctors are among 34 defendants – 20 individuals and 14 corporations – named in an 878-count indictment that alleges that they participated in a massive scheme to defraud Medicaid, Medicare and other publicly-funded insurance providers of approximately $146 million over three years.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “These defendants allegedly exploited the poorest among us to divert millions of dollars from publicly-funded insurance programs these same vulnerable people rely on. Some of the defendants then used the stolen funds to maintain a lavish lifestyle consisting of multi-million dollar homes, expensive handbags and luxury travel. This massive scheme, which provided no patient care at all, wasted millions of taxpayer dollars dedicated to Medicaid and Medicare, which serve as a lifeline for so many Americans – our families, our friends, our neighbors. I cannot and will not allow this type of corruption and fraud to take place in Brooklyn and will spend every resource to stop it.”

Drugmaker paid doctors with problem records to promote its pill

December 4, 2017

(CNN) One physician had his prescription pad taken away after he repeatedly failed tests assessing his competency.

Another was banned from treating mentally ill inmates and accused of endangering nursing home patients by prescribing excessive dosages of medications.
At least three others had criminal convictions for illegal prescribing.

Avanir Pharmaceuticals paid nearly 500 doctors to speak or consult on its drug, Nuedexta, between 2013 and 2016, according to government data. Through a review of the top prescribers and top paid physicians in this group, CNN identified a dozen who have been disciplined by state medical boards. These offenses included the harmful treatment of nursing home residents and “grossly negligent acts” involving the inappropriate prescribing of dangerous and addictive drugs — resulting in probation, suspension, fines and revoked licenses.

Alberta doctors given new rules for prescribing opioids

December 4, 2017

Alberta physicians will soon have to check the medical histories of their patients before prescribing opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants and sedatives.

The measure is part of a new mandatory rule passed Friday by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta.

“The new standard means there are more checks and balance in place for drugs that are subject to misuse and abuse,” said Kelly Eby, the college’s director of communications and government relations.

Victim’s Descendent Finally Gets Meagre $100,000 from Canada for Montreal CIA Torture Experiments

November 30, 2017

One of the darkest chapters of Canadian history surely has to be the CIA-funded mind control experiments done at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal back in the 1950s and 60s. You don’t have to be a senior citizen to have heard of the infamous “Dr.” Ewen Cameron and his “de-patterning” experiments done at the Allen Memorial Clinic, that gothic structure on the hill above downtown Montreal, attached to the Royal Victoria.

After all, a TV mini-series and three books were written about Cameron and the torture he inflicted upon unsuspecting Montreal women and men who came to him looking for help. He had developed the novel idea, which the CIA liked for its possible application in brainwashing enemies, that the best way to treat mental patients was to totally destroy their personality and attempt to remake them. To this end, he gave massive doses of electric shock to individuals to destroy their memories and then placed modified football helmets upon their still breathing corpses that would play endless loops of Cameron’s recorded instructions or other nonsense. He also had a penchant to put some patients on massive doses of barbiturates or LSD and throw them in a sensory deprivation tank for a month.

Of course, he never told his patients what he was doing – just his colleagues, the CIA and defense officials in Canada although the Canadian government has been pretty dark about their knowledge or involvement. Patients had to sue both the CIA and the Canadian government to get redress. The legal defense of Canada and CIA was simply that Cameron was doing these experiments anyway, they were just along for the ride. The Canadian government eventually had a program to give a paltry $100,000 to Cameron’s victims if they could PROVE they were “depatterned.” Patients had to take the CIA to court and eventually got a million dollars a number of years ago – pretty meagre.

Why bring this up today? Well, the daughter of one of the victims finally got the $100,000 payment that Canada had denied her deceased mother for about 50 years. Is this justice served?

In light of the fact that the Canadian government and therefore taxpayers are paying tens of millions of dollars to three individuals for Canada’s apparent role in their torture in Syria and millions more to Omar Kadir for that fiasco, we don’t think so,

We want to point out this weird dichotomy that apparently torture on foreign soil is worse than torture done within Canada.

We are concerned about government waste. But this is not about the money. How can any amount of money make things right after a mother or daughter or loved one has been brutalized in such a manner? But the amount signifies responsibility. Canada, almost 60 years late, gives a token gesture for a deceased victim. Embarrassing.

Canada official admits $1m fraud of First Nations children

November 29, 2017

A Canadian government consultant has pleaded guilty to stealing from a breakfast programme aimed at children living in Kashechewan First Nation.

Giuseppe Crupi was appointed by the government to co-manage the programme for Cree children in northern Ontario.

Between 2007-12, police say he took C$1.2m ($930,000, £700,000) from the programme and misappropriated nearly C$700,000 for personal use.

$175M in federal money for working poor goes unclaimed

November 29, 2017

About 240,000 low-income Canadians eligible for millions of dollars in federal support payments aren’t getting the cash, partly because the Canada Revenue Agency paperwork is too complicated.

That’s the tentative conclusion of a Finance Canada review of a vaunted poverty-reduction measure, the Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB), a program that is a decade old this year.