Canadian senator’s husband stashed $1.7 million in offshore account: report

The lawyer husband of Canadian Senator Pana Merchant has stashed some $1.7 million in a secret offshore bank account, a new report reveals.

CBC News reports that prominent Saskatchewan lawyer Tony Merchant moved the money to a Caribbean tax haven while locked in a battle with the Canada Revenue Agency.

His wife is a Liberal senator who was appointed in 2002 by prime minister Jean Chretien.

The transactions first came to light in documents obtained by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which shared the documents with the CBC.

The documents suggest Tony Merchant set up a trust in 1998 in the Cook Islands, which maintains stiff financial-secrecy laws. A helpful trait, should someone wish to keep their financial activities hush hush.

One note reportedly attached to Merchant's account reads: "Keep correspondence to a minimum... Do not fax to client. He will have a stroke."

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Merchant, whose practice Merchant Law Group LLP has offices across the country, is known as a tough lawyer who specializes is multi-million-dollar class action lawsuits.

He has tangled with Ford, drug maker Merck, tobacco companies and cell phone providers.

His firm is currently leading a class action lawsuit against the Canadian government over a lost hard drive that containing personal information on some 580,000 student loan recipients.

But he is best known for championing the $1.9 billion native residential school settlement. The StarPhoenix wrote in 2001 that his firm grossed $100 million for handling the lawsuits.

What better place to put such earnings as somewhere the Canadian government can't tax it.

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Merchant, who once referred to himself as the Ralph Nader of lawyers, was reprimanded for the way he solicited participants for the residential school system lawsuit.

He was also suspended by the Law Society of Saskatchewan in 2006 for breaking a court order by withdrawing trust funds without the consent of his client.

The Huffington Post reports he has a lengthy history of reprimand, including being found of conduct unbecoming a lawyer five times.

CBC also reports that Merchant has been locked in a near-constant battle with the Canadian government over his income tax, taking a dozen cases to tax court or higher chambers such as the Federal Court of Appeal.

None of those cases mention Merchant's offshore investments. Which, if you have forgotten, account for as much as $1.7 million.