FEDERAL COURT SIDES WITH GANGSTERS AGAINST TAX MAN

Judge Says Canada Revenue Agency Had No Right To Demand Information
About Source Of UN Members' Income

Members of the notorious United Nations gang might still be reeling
from the 30-year-sentence handed to founder Clay Roueche this week,
but at least they don't have to worry about the tax man coming after
any proceeds of crime.

The Federal Court of Canada has sided with several UN gang members
over the Canada Revenue Agency, saying a government employee had no
authority to issue letters demanding information about the source of
the gangsters' income.

And Judge Michael Phelan attacked the CRA for the way it delivered
those letters -- with tax officials escorted by the Gang Task Force in
police cars with lights flashing.

"Police presence was clear and visible and highly obtrusive. The
service of the documents was generally carried out late at night, with
multiple police cruisers present, lights on and with all the
paraphernalia of a police raid," Phelan said, adding that the actions
were "obtrusive, invasive and unjustified."

Instead of the gang members being ordered to pay taxes on undocumented
income, the tax man has been ordered to pay all the legal expenses of
the UN members for their court challenge, which was filed last year
and went to court in March 2009.

Phelan said while the revenue agency alleged the applicants were
"members of the UN Gang," the gangsters alleged a "continuing course
of illegal conduct carried out by certain officials of the Canada
Revenue Agency (CRA) which are not authorized and were engaged in for
purposes other than the enforcement of the Act."

The law is the law, Phelan said.

"It is a central tenet of the rule of law that everyone is required to
obey the law and all are entitled to the protections of the law, even
those litigants who may be deserving of little sympathy. In that
latter category would be members of gangs reputed to be engaged in
some of the most serious of illegal misconduct in the Lower Mainland
of British Columbia," he said.

At Roueche's sentencing in U.S. District Court Wednesday, Assistant
U.S. Attorney Susan Roe said the multiyear, multi-agency investigation
found the UN was moving about US$500,000 a week from Seattle to Los
Angeles from drug sales.

And, she said, that means the gang could have been distributing
cocaine and marijuana worth $26 million a year across the Canada-U. S.
border.

Canadian wiretaps of Roueche and his associates boasting about making
tons of money via their illicit business were filed as exhibits in the
U.S. case.

Phelan said he didn't have to decide whether the challengers were
actually members of the UN, but noted that two of them-- Duane (D. W.)
Meyer and Elliott (Taco) Castaneda -- have since been executed in
targeted gangland hits.

"It is not necessary or even within the scope of this inquiry to
determine whether the applicants are members of the UN Gang," Phelan
said in the 26-page ruling released earlier this month. "However, the
history of this litigation, involving change of the lead litigant due
to 'hits' on other members and other steps taken by the applicants to
protect personal information usually available in litigation due to
the fear of harm from unknown persons, is consistent with membership
in illegal gangs."

CRA media officer Caitlin Workman said Friday that she couldn't
comment on whether or not the agency plans to appeal the ruling.

"The CRA is carefully reviewing the Federal Court decision and is
formulating options on next steps. It would be premature to speculate
on what these steps will be at this point," Workman said.

The Vancouver Sun first revealed details of the court challenge in
July 2008.

Fifteen UN members and associates alleged the CRA was working
illegally with police by passing on their confidential information and
trying to humiliate them by showing up late at night or meeting them
in public places "to achieve maximum embarrassment."

Roueche's former brother-in-law, Koth Chanthapathet, as well as Jorge
Barreiro, whose wedding Roueche was travelling to in Mexico when he
was arrested last year, got served their letters outside the Colossus
Theatre in Langley in March of 2008.

Barreiro complained in his affidavit that Vancouver Police gang-unit
members could hear everything CRA official Jaqueline Gomez was saying
when she gave him the letter.

Chanthapathet complained "the police had upset my family" with a
late-night visit.

His sister is currently facing drug-trafficking charges along with
Thanh Kiet Kha, another of the UN gang members who challenged the CRA.

UN gang member Daryl Johnson was also part of the successful
challenge. Last month he was charged in an undercover drug sting in
which police say he and two other UN members paid a $100,000 deposit
on 100 kilos of cocaine. He remains in custody.

Phelan said he was troubled by the testimony of CRA employee Wayne
Fjoser, team leader in the Vancouver Special Enforcement Unit of SEP.
He signed the letters, called RFIs or "requirements for information,"
even though he didn't have the authority to do so.

Phelan said Fjoser claimed he never talked to his superiors about the
letters going to members of "one of the most vicious crime gangs and
involving a multi-force sophisticated police crime unit.

"The absence of management control may be an issue in some other
place; it may have permitted superiors the cloak of 'deniability.' In
any event, the SEP ... was apparently free to engage in activities on
their own with no accountability -- to, in essence, run amuck [sic]."

And he said that even though the CRA said police were present for
safety reasons, the letters "could simply be sent by registered mail."

Phelan also slammed the CRA because some information was passed to
police with "a cavalier disregard for the confidentiality provisions
of the act."