Meet the conspiracy theorist who swindled the CRA out of millions

You know, you've had some interesting history with the CRA and... Well, how do you know that? We have some sources. I mean, $40 million is a lot of money. After he rejected our interview request, we approached this man with hidden cameras. He's a conspiracy theorist who fooled the Canada Revenue Agency into giving him millions in bogus tax refunds. So how can you commit fraud against the fraudulent system? So in your mind, you've done nothing wrong. I know I haven't done anything wrong. Jonathan Pierce is a so-called sovereign citizen. He believes the government is a corporation and birth certificates hold the key to a secret account and those in the know can access hidden millions. I didn't even know I was going to get anything. I thought they would turn around and say, I'm sorry, sir, you can't. This doesn't work that way. Right. Next thing you know, getting a refund. According to internal documents and court records obtained by the Fifth Estate, in 2023, Pierce filed a series of tax forms. He didn't put any income, but falsely claimed that he paid huge amounts of tax. The CRA did not check. It just authorized $40 million in refunds. I think it's enraging. My heart's always gone out to the people who work hard for the money, who are honest. And then you have people who can make a complete mockery and joke out of the system. and still get away with it. We asked the finance minister about the issue. I've not been made aware of this specific allegation you're referring, but we take these questions very seriously. We later learned Pierce contacted the CRA beforehand and explained his conspiracy beliefs that should have raised alarms, but the agency still gave him $10 million before it caught on. To date, Pierce isn't facing criminal charges. If CRA had a problem, they wouldn't have given me the money. In a statement, the CRA says it's made significant progress in identifying and addressing abusive tax schemes. But we know that Pierce is not alone. The CRA found more than a dozen other cases like this, though they couldn't tell us how much they paid out.