FINA meeting 16 · 2025-12-01 — Committee Evidence — LegisWatch

Summary

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance studied the misuse of offshore tax havens and tax evasion, hearing from Chief Superintendent Michael Saghbini and Staff Sergeant Chad Babin of the RCMP's Financial Crime unit.

Chief Superintendent Saghbini explained that the RCMP supports the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in tax evasion cases, focusing on predicate offences like money laundering and fraud rather than tax evasion itself. He noted that sophisticated criminal groups use cryptocurrencies, shell companies, and lawyers to hide illicit funds, and that transnational crime poses jurisdictional challenges. He recommended that any new financial crimes agency should operate as a joint task force to share expertise and resources, and he highlighted the beneficial ownership registry as a simple but powerful tool for investigations.

Staff Sergeant Babin identified beneficial ownership as a major challenge, noting that complex trust and corporate structures in low-tax jurisdictions make it difficult to find actual owners. He said that international police-to-police information sharing through networks like the Asset Recovery Inter-agency Network is valuable, and he recommended legislative changes to improve access to banking and cryptocurrency transaction records, as well as faster access to tax records. He disagreed with any implication that the RCMP lacks resources, stating that the force is adequately staffed and continually adapts to evolving crime methods.

The committee did not hold any procedural debate, motions, or votes during this meeting.

AI-generated summary — may contain errors; verify against the official evidence.

Witnesses · 2

Chief Superintendent Michael Saghbini

Director General, Financial Crime, Federal Policing Criminal Operations, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Opening remarks

Good morning, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee. My name is Chief Superintendent Michael Saghbini. I'm the director general for financial crime within federal policing criminal operations at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP. I'm joined by acting Staff Sergeant Chad Babin, a subject matter expert in financial crime within federal policing criminal operations. I am honoured to speak to you all today from the traditional territory of the Algonquin Anishinabe people. I'll begin with a brief description of the RCMP's role. Financial crime is a priority for the RCMP and is part of its mandate to protect Canada's economic integrity. We work closely with the Canada Revenue Agency, the CRA, which is the lead department responsible for investigating tax evasion related to offshore tax havens. As you know, the CRA has its own investigative capacity through its criminal investigations directorate and is well positioned to investigate tax evasion cases in close collaboration with law enforcement agencies like the RCMP. The RCMP plays an important support role on this issue. We are not a primary recipient of tax information, but we may become involved in…

Full testimony ↗

Staff Sergeant Chad Babin

Financial Crime, Federal Police Criminal Operations, Royal Canadian Mounted Police

Opening remarks

Thank you. One of the larger risks or things that we have to deal with is beneficial ownership. That's a hot-button topic for us: Who actually controls or owns certain trusts or corporations? Certain low-tax jurisdictions allow complex set-ups of trusts or corporate registries, and finding the actual owners of those is a challenge for the police, especially when dealing with their international partners in certain jurisdictions.