David Eby, Attorney-General of British Columbia, shared that the province has failed to prevent wide-spread money laundering schemes to be carried out through local casinos. He further explained that he hopes that tomorrow an independent report on the matter is to be released to tackle organized crime group’s ability to use casino services to illegally clean some cash.
Despite the increased criticism which has recently been faced by the anti-money laundering measures unveiled by the Canadian province, the Attorney General said that recent reforms have already started working and cited the arrest of an international casino money-laundering criminal in May.
Tomorrow, Mr. Eby is expected to officially reveal the final report and recommendations of Peter German, an ex-deputy commissioner of both the Correctional Service Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). It was in September 2017 when the review was given a start after the Attorney General urged him to investigate some allegations related to the widespread, international money laundering in the Lower Mainland-situated gambling facilities.
A thorough chronology of the events due to which British Columbia became a hot spot for illegal money laundering schemes has been prepared by Mr. German. In an interview to a local media, the Attorney General revealed that much of the blame for that has been cast on the former Liberal government of the province. According to Mr. Eby, Mr. German’s report would be really helpful for British Columbia’s residents to understand why the money laundering issue was such a great concern of local authorities and said that it was expected to provide them with better perspective for the actual scale of the problem.
In addition, the Attorney General shared that the report was expected to illustrate what the province and the government could do in order to avoid any future failures of the regulatory system.
New Anti-Money Laundering Measures Already Efficient, Says Attorney General
The report of Mr. German was first received by the Attorney General in April 2018. Now, Mr. Eby revealed that the recommendations made at the end of 2017 have already started working and reminded of the international money laundering criminal Dan Bain Sun Jin’s arrest at the River Rock Casino in Richmond earlier this year.
As previously revealed by Casino Reports, Mr. Jin’s arrest warrant was issued in the state of Nevada for allegations of a fraud worth more than US$1.4 million. According to the information revealed by the RCMP, Mr. Jin is also suspected to have laundered $855 million through Australian casinos. About a fortnight ago, the civil forfeiture office of British Columbia filed a civil lawsuit seeking chips worth CA$75,000 to be brought back to the province.
The Attorney General explained that Mr. Jin’s arrest pretty much reflects a change in the province’s approach towards allegations of money laundering and law enforcement. However, he noted that more the Federal Government needs to ensure more money in order to help the investigative capacity’s improvement in such cases.
The province of British Columbia has already rolled out new rules to fore high-stake gamblers to disclose the source of their funds, which is aimed at drastically reduce the number of suspicious money transactions in local casinos and prevent money laundering. The largest amount of suspicious transactions in the province reached their peak of CA$20 million in July 2015.
