I reported someone who cost me my job to the tax authorities.

In 2005 I was working as in-house counsel for a company who was setting up business in Brazil. I had a lot of experience in Brazil and spoke Portuguese and was thus involved in the project. The company also had an employee in Brazil. We’ll call him Fulano.

So, during a trip to Brazil I met with him over lunch and we had a long discussion about the company’s plans in Brazil, the potential for growth and the like. It was a very pleasant lunch at one of Rio’s best churrascarias. However, during the course of the lunch he told me that he had never declared any income that the company had paid to him in his tax returns.

A week later I was back in Johannesburg and called in by the company’s president and VP. I was quite keen to discuss the plans I had for them for Brazil. After a rundown of the meeting I had with Fulano, the president turned to the VP and said:

“Show him the email”.

She then showed me an email in which Fulano told them that it is obvious I wanted his job, that I had told him to ignore his boss (the VP)’s instructions and several other lies. It was however clear that I would not get a very fair chance to explain that this was just blatant lies on the part of a very insecure person. In one of the replies that the VP had sent to Fulano she wrote to him:

“Emile is the legal advisor, not the marketing manager, WHAT PART OF THAT DOES HE NOT GET?”

And that was before they had even asked to hear my side, making it obvious that they were believing Fulano.

I confronted Fulano but he slammed the phone down in my ear.

It was unfortunately clear that my days at the company were over. After some tense negotiations, I left with three months’ salary and returned to private legal practice.

However, I still had to deal with Fulano. So, armed with his Brazilian tax number and bank account details (I drafted his contract with the company so I had this information), I traveled to Brazil and promptly passed all the information to the Brazilian tax authorities.

The Brazilian tax authorities don’t give feedback on tip offs they receive, however, a few weeks later I saw a message posted by his girlfriend on a social media page (precursor of Facebook) in which she wrote to him:

“My darling, just when we think things cannot get any worse, this happens. Just know, I stand by you always”.

And then I knew, the tax authorities had gone to claim their dues.

Why on earth he would choose to make an enemy of someone to whom he had confessed that he was tax fraud, I don’t know, except maybe as a testament to his own stupidity.

And a few weeks later still, he was sacked by the very VP he claimed to be very close to.

It still feels good thinking about it more than a decade later.