CRA says 330 employees fired for inappropriately claiming CERB
More than 300 employees of the Canada Revenue Agency have been terminated in the past year for inappropriately receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the final round of firings having occurred in the past three months.
In total, 330 people have lost their jobs at the federal agency after receiving a benefit they were ineligible to receive, the CRA told Global News in its final update.
The CRA said last year they were launching an internal review to determine if employees had received CERB, and identified approximately 600 people for further investigation.
The $2,000-per-month CERB was rolled out by the CRA between March and September 2020 in the early months of the pandemic.
Not everyone who has been investigated was terminated, however. The CRA said 185 were looked into, but not fired, though 40 faced disciplinary actions, such as suspension. The remainder of the cases saw administrative actions taken, such as the end of review as the employee was no longer with the agency at the time of review, or were found to be a victim of identity theft.
Another 135 faced no consequences as they were eligible for CERB, with the CRA telling Global News some of their employees could receive the benefit because they were students or on temporary contracts.
Those that did access CERB inappropriately will be required to pay back the money if they have not already done so, the CRA said.
“The actions of some should in no way undermine the honesty and integrity of the tens of thousands of CRA employees who work every day in an exemplary manner to serve Canadians,” a spokesperson for the CRA said in an email.
The CRA added that there were still a small number of cases, such as those on medical or extended unpaid leave, who are still being reviewed and will take additional time to complete.
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US sentences Mexico's ex-security chief
to 38 years for aiding cartels
Genaro Garcia Luna, the former security chief behind former Mexican President Felipe Calderon's crackdown on drug trafficking between 2006 and 2012, was sentenced to 38 years in a US prison on Wednesday for taking millions in bribes from drug cartels as their "partner in crime".
Mexico's former top security official Genaro Garcia Luna was sentenced to more than 38 years in a US prison on Wednesday for aiding the very drug cartels he was tasked with dismantling.
Garcia Luna, 56, was convicted at a high-profile trial in New York last year of taking millions of dollars in bribes to allow the Sinaloa Cartel to smuggle tons of cocaine.
District Judge Brian Cogan sentenced Garcia Luna, who served as secretary of public security under president Felipe Calderon from 2006 to 2012, to 460 months in prison and a $2 million fine at a hearing in federal court in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors had sought a life sentence.
"Today's sentencing of Genaro Garcia Luna is a critical step in upholding justice and the rule of law," US Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
"His betrayal of the public trust and the people he was sworn to protect resulted in more than one million kilograms of lethal narcotics imported into our communities and unleashed untold violence here and in Mexico," Peace said.
Garcia Luna's month-long trial shone a spotlight on the corruption of the highest-ranking Mexican government figure ever to face trial in the United States.
It also opened a window on the vast resources of the Sinaloa Cartel under Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who is now serving a life sentence in a US penitentiary.
At his trial, prosecutors said Garcia Luna, who held high-ranking security positions in Mexico from 2001 until 2012, was the cartel's "partner in crime."
That included his time as the architect of Calderon's crackdown on Mexico's drug gangs between 2006 and 2012.
But instead of stopping the smuggling, Garcia Luna took millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel to allow safe passage of narcotics shipments.
According to prosecutors, he tipped off drug traffickers about law enforcement operations, targeted rival cartel members for arrest and placed other corrupt officials in positions of power.
Garcia Luna served as chief of the Mexican equivalent of the FBI from 2001 until 2006, when he was elevated to secretary of public security, essentially running the federal police force and most counter-drug operations.
Calderon said after the sentencing that he never had "verifiable evidence" or information from Mexican or foreign intelligence agencies implicating Garcia Luna in illegal activities.
"I am in favor of those who break the law assuming the consequences of their actions," the ex-president wrote on social media.
'Supercop'
Nine of the 26 witnesses who testified against Garcia Luna, once known as "supercop," were accused drug traffickers extradited from Mexico and collaborating with US prosecutors in exchange for possible leniency in their own trials.
They included high-level cartel bosses Jesus "Rey" Zambada, Sergio Villarreal Barragan and Oscar "Lobo" Valencia.
They claimed to have paid millions of dollars to Garcia Luna collectively, and through Arturo Beltran Leyva, who ran his own drug cartel and served as a go-between with Garcia Luna in exchange for protection.
Garcia Luna, a mechanical engineer by trade, moved to the United States in 2012 and was detained in Texas in December 2019.
He was convicted of multiple charges including engaging in a criminal enterprise that involved conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine.
US Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram said Garcia Luna's sentencing "sends a clear message to corrupt leaders around the world who use their positions of power to help the cartels: no amount of power will shield you from justice."
The world's biggest narcotics organization at one time, the Sinaloa Cartel moved multi-ton loads of cocaine each month from producing countries in the Andean region up through Mexico and on to streets in Europe and North America.
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