Money Laundering: "The Vancouver Model"

[misher]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Have you read about Quebec or Newfoundland finding dirty money in everything from their gambling to their cosmetics?

So because we began running news articles sensationalizing one aspect of our crime problem if must be a problem that solely affects us 😂😂

This logic is impeccable

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by misher

So because we began running news articles sensationalizing one aspect of our crime problem if must be a problem that solely affects us ������������

This logic is impeccable

Because we all know the old news adage: "if it bleeds, it... should be kept to ourselves. Let's not make a scene here."

Just a few posts ago, the problem was actually a good thing because it the economy somehow got a boost... then it was so insurmountable that the province couldn't handle it on their own... now it's nothing, our journalists and ministers just want clickbait? Sweet Akatosh, make up your mind, man.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Because the Feds aren't doing their own investigation (and may or may not be actively hindering ours)? They're busy with Huawei.

Not to mention the province oversees Gaming, so they’re responsible for what goes on in casinos.

[whatnext]

From today's Province:

Report from Paris-based agency says more than $1 billion a year laundered through a B.C. underground bank servicing Mexican cartels, Asian gangs and Middle Eastern crime groups

In July 2018, an international agency that sets anti-money laundering standards quietly released an explanatory report on professional money laundering.

In the 53-page report, the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force made a stunning claim: A “massive” underground bank in B.C. had laundered more than $1 billion a year.

The underground bank offered its services, says the report, to organized crime groups around the world, including Mexican cartels, Asian gangs and Middle Eastern crime groups.

The case — one of several real-life accounts in the report — said the B.C. money-laundering network’s illegal activities involved drug money, illegal gambling and money derived from extortion to supply cash to Chinese gamblers...

https://theprovince.com/news/local-n...b-a396a223cc76

[retro_orange]

B.C. mayors want inquiry into links between fentanyl, money laundering and real estate


B.C.’s attorney general says as much as $1 billion of drug money laundered each year through real estate, and that dirty money has played a role in inflating the price of homes in province. Police say a lot of that drug money is coming from fentanyl linked to China. A group of municipal politicians are also calling for a public inquiry into the role of drug money on B.C.’s housing market.


• Video Link


A good watch, goes through all the steps of money laundering near the end of the video. We really need a full out public inquiry into the connections between drugs, money laundering and or real estate.

[misher]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

A good watch, goes through all the steps of money laundering near the end of the video. We really need a full out public inquiry into the connections between drugs, money laundering and or real estate.

Considering we’re the third biggest province and Ontario+Quebec (NB doesn't count!) have a provincial police force I’m wondering if it’s time we had our own?

[retro_orange]

delete

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

B.C. mayors want inquiry into links between fentanyl, money laundering and real estate


B.C.’s attorney general says as much as $1 billion of drug money laundered each year through real estate, and that dirty money has played a role in inflating the price of homes in province. Police say a lot of that drug money is coming from fentanyl linked to China. A group of municipal politicians are also calling for a public inquiry into the role of drug money on B.C.’s housing market.


• Video Link


A good watch, goes through all the steps of money laundering near the end of the video. We really need a full out public inquiry into the connections between drugs, money laundering and or real estate.

I also laughed when I heard that a common theme is "my family has a coal mine in China", so they must dump money here because of this?

[whatnext]

CTV yesterday had a segement on how luxury cars are used to launder money in BC:

Former police investigators are speaking out to CTV News, asking to close a legal loophole that can turn luxury cars and SUVs into literal vehicles for money laundering.

Multiple surveillance targets in police probes that connected drug cash to B.C. casinos owned or drove multiple cars, trucks and SUVs that added up to as much as half a million dollars per person, court records show - a sign that criminals are taking advantage of a lack of controls on cash purchases of luxury vehicles, and are using them as a way to hide dirty cash, said former RCMP investigator Garry Clement.

“They’re buying vehicles, they’re buying boats, they’re buying jewelry. It’s a way of getting rid of the cash and playing with their money and enjoying it,” Clement told CTV News.

Most banks won’t take all big-ticket purchases meant to get rid of the cash, he said. Banks have to report large cash transactions to FinTrac, a federal government agency. But businesses that sell cars have no such restriction.

“There’s no reporting to FinTrac, so it’s a great way to launder money,” Clement said. “The reality is that this is out of control in this country.”..

https://bc.ctvnews.ca/can-cash-contr...rket-1.4314369

[SpongeG]

Airport delivery service for rich Chinese unravels, leaving Canada jeweller Montecristo with huge unpaid tax bill

Company took watches to airport for customers returning to China who didn’t want to pay Canadian tax, until a border agent got suspicious


Darryl Greer
Published: 11:39am, 23 Mar, 2019

When Vancouver-based jeweller and magazine publisher Pasquale Cusano opened shop in 1978, he mostly catered to Europeans, but over the years his customer base shifted towards wealthy Chinese with an insatiable demand for luxury watches worth up to C$1 million (US$746,000) apiece.

With foreign fortunes flooding in, Cusano’s Montecristo Jewellers began hearing complaints from customers about taxes on big ticket items they planned to take back to China as gifts. Unlike the European Union with its value-added tax, tourists cannot get a refund of Canada’s goods and service tax on items destined to leave the country.

Cusano sought the advice of a customs broker to find a way for clients to avoid paying GST on items destined for outside Canada, which does not apply GST to exports.
For years, Montecristo sold 1,000 Rolexes a year, as well as up to 2,000 other high-end brands including Breguet, Harry Winston, Blancpain, AP, Column, and Hublot.

Cusano was able to classify certain sales as “exports” by arranging delivery to customers at Vancouver International Airport before boarding flights out the country.

With the cooperation of the Canada Border Services Agency, whose employees stamped export forms for the items, Cusano and his sales staff would make up to 300 visits a year to the airport for what they called an “export sales procedure”, which made up to 30 per cent of the company’s sales.

...

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/unit...ravels-leaving

[Sheba]

B.C. Liberal minister intervened to raise betting limits, ignoring money laundering warnings about Chinese VIPs

Despite money laundering concerns from the province’s gambling regulator, officials in B.C.’s finance ministry intervened to allow B.C. Lottery Corp. to raise high-roller betting limits to $100,000 per hand in time for Chinese New Year visits, a Global News investigation shows.

In May 2015, then-finance minister Mike de Jong said in B.C.’s legislature that the controversial “senior-level intervention” was made “in the public interest” in order to maximize casino revenue.

Since late 2010, the regulator — GPEB — had warned the Lottery Corp. (BCLC) to limit massive cash transactions involving Chinese VIPs at private baccarat tables, documents show.

But instead, Lottery Corp. managers did the opposite. They repeatedly raised baccarat limits, from $5,000 per hand to $100,000. And they refused to implement the regulator’s suggested “remedy” of capping VIP buy-ins with $20 bills — the denomination associated most with drug trafficking — to under $10,000.

...

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Sheba

B.C. Liberal minister intervened to raise betting limits, ignoring money laundering warnings about Chinese VIPs

Yah - because if there ever was any doubt that this was literally part of the Liberal Gov'ts business plan, its been erased now.

Its not that this was will full ignorance - this was a government using illegal money flows for revenue.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Sheba

B.C. Liberal minister intervened to raise betting limits, ignoring money laundering warnings about Chinese VIPs

BC Liberals: The party of the corrupt.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Sheba

B.C. Liberal minister intervened to raise betting limits, ignoring money laundering warnings about Chinese VIPs

fml. How could the Liberals think this would never come back to haunt them. I wonder what the genius Wilkinson will say to constitute this.

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

BC Liberals: The party of the corrupt.

Anything I say is probably going to lead to your disagreement, but to me it seems like both parties are pretty terrible? As for overt corruption, I think directly awarding 10's of billions of contracts financed by debt to your backers is pretty corrupt.

[bluefox]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

fml. How could the Liberals think this would never come back to haunt them. I wonder what the genius Wilkinson will say to constitute this.

BUT GUYS there's someone paying $8,000 a year for their car insurance zomg dismantle ICBC yesterday!!!!

On a more serious note, an ominous tweet yesterday from Global News' Sam Cooper:



Story is now up and it's a doozy:

...Canada missed an early opportunity to crack down on international money laundering rings...

...What really surprised a U.S. official looking back at investigation evidence records was how prominent Canadian cities were to Hezbollah’s operations — in a group with narco-hubs like Panama, Beirut and Jordan — and how disinterested the RCMP was.

[retro_orange]

U.S. deems Canada ‘major money laundering country’ as gangs exploit weak law enforcement

B.C. Attorney General David Eby and Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair speak to reporters in Victoria on March 27, 2019.
Richard Zussman/Global News

The U.S. Department of State has designated Canada a “major money laundering country” where foreign drug-trafficking gangs are exploiting weak law enforcement and soft laws.

The March 2019 report, which places Canada on a short list of countries vulnerable to significant drug money laundering transactions — such as Afghanistan, the British Virgin Islands, China, Colombia and Macau — underlines a number of threats reported over the past year in Global News investigations, such as the laundering of fentanyl-trafficking proceeds from China through British Columbia casinos, real estate and underground banks.

READ MORE: Secret police study finds crime networks could have laundered over $1B through Vancouver homes in 2016

“Foreign-generated proceeds of crime are laundered in Canada, and professional, third-party money laundering is a key concern,” the report states. “Transnational organized crime groups and professional money launderers are key threat actors.”

The report says Canada is especially vulnerable to money laundering through casinos, real estate, money services businesses, currency exchanges, wire exchanges, offshore corporations, legal “funnel accounts” and bulk cash and hawala transactions — meaning international exchanges of credit and debt between criminal bankers without money actually crossing borders.

According to the most recent data, from 2010 to 2014, only 169 charges of money laundering led to convictions in Canada, the report says.

“Canada has a rigorous detection and monitoring process in place but should further enhance its enforcement and prosecutorial capabilities,” the report says. “When the magnitude of the identified money laundering risks are taken into account, Canada’s money laundering conviction rate appears to be low.”

READ MORE: Toronto’s real-estate market risky for money laundering, with $28B in opaque investments: report

The report notes that Canadian police do not have direct access to the databases of Fintrac, Canada’s financial intelligence agency. Fintrac collects data on suspicious transactions from entities such as banks and realtors (although realtors often do not comply with reporting laws, according to Fintrac).

But this cache of searchable information, which would help police identify suspects potentially involved in professional money laundering, can only be released in focused disclosures and if Fintrac deems it highly likely that crimes are taking place.

This has led critics to accuse Fintrac of being a good collector of unused criminal intelligence.

But Fintrac’s disclosures to law enforcement have improved somewhat since 2017, the report says, after amendments to Canada’s anti-money laundering laws.

Canada was also designated as a “major precursor country” for illicit narcotics and a source country for fentanyl.

“Canada continued to experience a growing number of opioids-related overdose deaths, with over 8,000 deaths since 2016,” the report says.

READ MORE: Fentanyl kings in Canada allegedly linked to powerful Chinese gang, the Big Circle Boys

China is the major source of fentanyl trafficking to North America, but Canadian officials reported a decrease in the volume of fentanyl seized in postal transactions from China, according to the report.

Global News has reported, however, that some Canadian officials believe fentanyl trafficking from China is, in fact, getting worse because of increasing diplomatic disputes between the two countries.

READ MORE: China won’t stop flood of fentanyl into Canada, sources say

No Canadian officials are believed to be involved in drug trafficking or money laundering, the U.S. report says.

Last week, B.C.’s government asked the federal government for the majority of resources from a new money laundering commitment.

B.C. Attorney General David Eby met with Federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime Reduction Bill Blair in Victoria on Wednesday.

“It’s an international issue, which calls for a strong, committed provincial partner, which we are,” Eby said. “We are here and ready to work with the federal government to address it.”

READ MORE: Canada proposes national money laundering task force in budget 2019

The federal government proposed a new anti-money laundering task force in the federal budget to crack down on real estate-, casino- and trade-based money laundering, especially in high-risk areas such as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

The plan includes investments of about $200 million in five years and additional ongoing funding, a response to “growing concerns” that transnational organized crime and professional money laundering networks are flooding illicit funds through Canadian real estate, corporations and trade, budget documents say.

https://globalnews.ca/news/5102137/u...ering-country/

[SpongeG]

Vancouver’s once rollicking casinos hit by dirty money crackdown
Natalie Obiko Pearson and Paula Sambo, Bloomberg News April 29, 2019

When Parq Vancouver, a glimmering waterfront casino, opened amid much to-do in late 2017, few would’ve anticipated that a dirty money crackdown was about to throw the city’s roaring gambling business into turmoil.

Vancouver-area casinos for years had been accepting millions of dollars in questionable cash from gamblers showing up with suitcases and hockey bags bulging with bills, according to British Columbia Attorney General David Eby. But new rules implemented last year to more tightly identify sources of funds have put a damper on that rollicking trade.

“The anti-money laundering regulations in British Columbia have been a problem," says Andrew Hood, a Toronto-based equity analyst at M Capital Partners Inc. who covers Dundee Corp., one of Parq’s two owners. “The regulations were supposed to cut down on illicit gambling but, of course, that hurt volumes across casinos."

For Parq, one of the province’s largest-ever private developments, the clampdown came at a delicate time. The plan was to replace costly construction financing with cheaper debt after opening but business picked up slower than expected amid the new restrictions. It lost nearly $153 million ($114 million) in 2018, according to a March 28 Dundee filing. Now Parq’s in a race to refinance debt in order to make an interest payment this week on a second-lien loan, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Parq Holdings LP has a $150 million second-lien term-loan that was arranged by a syndicate of financial institutions led by Credit Suisse Securities in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of interest isn’t disclosed, but Parq had deferred an interest payment by one month to April 30 and its ability to pay hinges on the company refinancing its debt, S&P said earlier this month when it downgraded Parq Holdings LP to CCC, eight notches below investment grade, from B-.

...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/vancouve...down-1.1250744

[misher]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

Vancouver’s once rollicking casinos hit by dirty money crackdown
Natalie Obiko Pearson and Paula Sambo, Bloomberg News April 29, 2019

When Parq Vancouver, a glimmering waterfront casino, opened amid much to-do in late 2017, few would’ve anticipated that a dirty money crackdown was about to throw the city’s roaring gambling business into turmoil.

Vancouver-area casinos for years had been accepting millions of dollars in questionable cash from gamblers showing up with suitcases and hockey bags bulging with bills, according to British Columbia Attorney General David Eby. But new rules implemented last year to more tightly identify sources of funds have put a damper on that rollicking trade.

“The anti-money laundering regulations in British Columbia have been a problem," says Andrew Hood, a Toronto-based equity analyst at M Capital Partners Inc. who covers Dundee Corp., one of Parq’s two owners. “The regulations were supposed to cut down on illicit gambling but, of course, that hurt volumes across casinos."

For Parq, one of the province’s largest-ever private developments, the clampdown came at a delicate time. The plan was to replace costly construction financing with cheaper debt after opening but business picked up slower than expected amid the new restrictions. It lost nearly $153 million ($114 million) in 2018, according to a March 28 Dundee filing. Now Parq’s in a race to refinance debt in order to make an interest payment this week on a second-lien loan, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Parq Holdings LP has a $150 million second-lien term-loan that was arranged by a syndicate of financial institutions led by Credit Suisse Securities in 2014, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The amount of interest isn’t disclosed, but Parq had deferred an interest payment by one month to April 30 and its ability to pay hinges on the company refinancing its debt, S&P said earlier this month when it downgraded Parq Holdings LP to CCC, eight notches below investment grade, from B-.

...

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/vancouve...down-1.1250744

You forgot

In January 2018, the government-owned British Columbia Lottery Corp., responsible for managing casinos in the province, hastily implemented new measures requiring gamblers to provide a bank receipt on the source of funds for any buy-ins amounting to C$10,000 or more within a 24-hour period. It also hired Ernst & Young to audit three years of transactions at River Rock but concluded in February that "there was no systemic pattern of money-laundering activity."

[bluefox]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

“The anti-money laundering regulations in British Columbia have been a problem," says Andrew Hood, a Toronto-based equity analyst at M Capital Partners Inc.

Seriously?

A problem for who? That's kind of the point...