Greg Peet, a provincially-appointed member of the UBC Board of Governors and chair of the board’s finance committee, is currently in court appealing a December 2015 ruling which found that a company he owned dodged over $1 million in provincial taxes in 2002, an investigation by UBC Insiders has revealed.
In 2002, A.L.I. Technologies, of which Peet was CEO, was being acquired by a much larger company. To avoid the high income taxes he and his family would have to pay in light of the profit made by selling their company shares, he consulted a tax company who advised him to create a company in Québec and shuffle the money between the two to avoid provincial taxes in either province.
“This is a simple case of a tax not being paid anywhere which ought to have been paid somewhere,” said Justice George Macintosh in the court decision published online. That tax totals over $1 million.
“[Peet] is a member of the board and will continue to be so,” said UBC spokesperson Susan Danard on behalf of the Board of Governors. “He’s appealing the decision. It’s still very much before the courts and we’re constrained by what we can say, but he’ll remain a board member.”
This story is developing and will be updated as new information becomes available.