Corrupt tax auditor gets three years

CRA Team Leader Jeffrey Granger admitted to helping Peel developers evade taxes while also framing the Mayor of Caledon.

LUCAS OLENIUK / TORONTO STAR Order this photo

Jeffrey Granger has been sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to accepting bribes.

By: Marco Chown Oved Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Jan 29 2014

He went from wearing Harry Rosen suits to panhandling on the streets. And after pleading guilty to accepting over a million dollars in bribes, former government tax official Jeffrey Granger is now going to prison.

At Newmarket court Wednesday, Granger, 39, was sentenced to three years for his involvement in a scheme to help wealthy developers evade taxes and frame Caledon's mayor for taking kickbacks.

Speaking slowly and articulately, the former Canada Revenue Agency team leader apologized for the harm he caused the mayor but said the plot also destroyed his life.

Since his arrest in 2010, Granger says he's lost his wife, his kids, his home, job and assets. His health has suffered - he's put on more than 70 pounds - and he's entered treatment for alcoholism and gambling addiction.

Granger pleaded guilty in November to breach of trust by a public officer, accepting bribes and fraud over $5,000.

At the plea hearing, the Crown and Granger submitted an agreed statement of facts that describes how several major developers in Peel Region paid Granger $1.1 million to stymie government tax audits of their businesses and attempt to frame Caledon Mayor Marolyn Morrison for taking bribes.

The developers deny these allegations and maintain Granger was hired as a legitimate tax consultant.

Morrison could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Morrison angered developer Benedetto (Benny) Marotta when Caledon town council blocked development on a tract of land he owned in 2008. He threatened to sue the city for $500 million.

Tensions grew worse in June of that year, when Morrison's husband was threatened and assaulted at their home by a man who demanded she change her vote on the development. No one was ever arrested or charged in the assault.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Marotta asked his accountant, Edward Favot, to investigate rumours that Morrison was corrupt and accepting bribes from developers.

Favot brought in Granger, who used his computer access at the CRA to initiate an audit into Morrison, the document says.

Marotta later gave police a USB stick containing digital copies of cheques other developers had made out to Morrison. Because Morrison had not declared these cheques in her taxes, they appeared to show she had been taking bribes.

Police later determined the cheques were falsified.

Granger denies he provided this USB stick to Marotta.

Both before and after the forged documents were given to police, Marotta wrote Granger nine cheques for more than $500,000. Marotta's lawyer previously told the Star that those payments were for legal tax consulting services.

No one else has been charged in the case.

In an elevator during a court recess, Granger expressed frustration that he was the only person charged in the scheme.

"This is bigger than me," he said. "I'm the scapegoat."

Describing himself as a softie, in the same conversation with the Star, he said he spent all the money on his family, buying a Harley-Davidson for his father's retirement and living in a million-dollar house with his now ex-wife. He gambled much of the money away and donated large sums to charity, he said.

But Justice Joseph Kenkel said such large sums of money don't simply disappear and that his explanation of lavish expenditures wasn't credible.

After receiving his sentence, Granger stood up calmly. As the court officer handcuffed him, he quietly said, "Thank you."