White-Collar Crime and Tax Evasion
Markson Law represents clients charged with a broad range of fraud-related offences, including employee fraud, breach of trust, secret commissions, proceeds of crime, money laundering, and frauds on the government. By wielding its extensive experience dealing with a wide range of complex and high stakes white-collar cases, Markson Law has successfully secured extraordinary outcomes for individual and corporate clients, including groundbreaking precedents and the withdrawal of serious charges that would otherwise attract significant penitentiary sentences. Markson Law’s practice focuses heavily on managing not only the risks associated with criminal sanctions, but also the risk of reputational damage for companies under investigative scrutiny.
Markson Law hosts one of Canada’s top criminal defence teams in the area of tax evasion.
The firm acts for individuals and corporations who are being audited by the Canada Revenue Agency and are at risk of being referred to the Criminal Investigations Program or who are under investigation for or charged with domestic and offshore tax evasion and fraud. The firm advises tax shelters under audit or investigation by the CRA. In his tax evasion practice, Joseph Markson acts as criminal counsel to the Canadian and U.S. tax law boutique of Morris Kepes Winters LLP, which was ranked by Canadian Lawyer Magazine as one of Canada’s Top 10 Tax Law Boutiques in 2019/20. Joseph also frequently advises civil tax counsel at other firms for clients that are at risk of criminal jeopardy.
Joseph Markson brings to his tax evasion and white-collar crime practice his extensive experience prosecuting major complex tax evasion and fraud cases for the Canada Revenue Agency. From 1995 to 1997, Joseph was co-counsel in the prosecution of two of the largest alcohol smuggling conspiracies in North American history, involving the evasion of twenty-six million dollars in federal taxes. From 1998 to 2001, he prosecuted R. v. DiPalma; a leading tax-preparer fraud case in Canada involving a gold mining scheme in Guyana and over 130 investor victims. From 2001 to 2008, he was senior co-counsel in the multi-million dollar tax fraud prosecution of R. v. DiGiuseppe involving secreted bawdy house income. From 2008 to 2012, he successfully prosecuted R. v. Witen; another multi-million dollar tax-preparer fraud.
In 2011, Markson Law’s federal appointment as Agent of the Public Prosecution Service of Canada was amended to enable the firm to represent individuals and corporations facing exposure for tax evasion under the Income Tax Act, the Excise Act and the Criminal Code.
Representative Work
Successfully secured withdrawals in numerous cases involving significant allegations of fraud and breach of trust through early intervention in the pre-trial stages of case and through the creative and effective use of defence strategies to attack the viability of a prosecution.
Where matters are set on a principled course for resolution, Markson Law has successfully secured outcomes to enable clients to retain employment and secure a non-custodial exit even in cases involving significant frauds and aggravating circumstances.
Markson Law pursues constitutional remedies in appropriate cases, such as securing the withdrawal of a significant allegation of fraud over $5000 after advancing a meritorious abuse of process defence.
Successfully represented the interests of a large privately-held multinational corporation, by working cooperatively with tax solicitors in analyzing the trajectory of the audit and eliminating the material risks of the matter being referred by CRA Audit to the CRA Criminal investigations Division.
Markson Law coordinated a team of counsel and represented an individual in a domestic and offshore CRA criminal tax evasion investigation. Through the use of civil remedies, Markson Law successfully prohibited the offshore jurisdiction from providing taxpayer information requested by the CRA pursuant to a tax treaty, resulting in the abandonment of the investigation.