Robert Kroeker, who has been occupying the position of chair of the Justice Institute of British Columbia’s Board of Governors, is resigning from his job.
He has announced his decision only days after the regulatory group Integrity BC questioned whether he had the right to occupy a chief position at an organization, which offers law enforcement courses and which is also engaged with sheriffs and corrections officers’ training, considering his connections with Great Canadian Gaming Corp.
Mr. Kroeker has been working as head of compliance at the company at the time when the BC Government has been holding an investigation into alleged illegal money laundering schemes taking place at the operator’s River Rock Casino in Charlton.
Robert Kroeker said in a statement posted on the website of the Justice Institute that the institution was distracted from its core mandate due to increased media attention towards the school. He explained that neither other board members, nor any staff members and students should be subjected to what he called “intrusions”. He explained that he has made the decision to step down from his position as a board executive with immediate effect in order to make sure that the work of JIBC and its staff may not be disrupted any further.
Mr. Kroeker will keep his position as a vice-president of British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s corporate security and compliance department.
Was There Conflict of Interests?
Still, as Global News revealed, Integrity BC’s Dermot Travis shared that it is the association of Mr. Kroeker with the gambling operator rather the media attention brought to the case which should be found concerning. He highlighted the fact that Kroeker’s employment at the Great Canadian Gaming Corp. was removed from his bio published on the Justice Institute’s website prior to any of the coverage this got in media hubs.
According to Mr. Travis, the above-mentioned act came to demonstrate how inappropriate that employment was considering Kroeker’s position at the Justice Institute.
Robert Kroeker, Chief Compliance Officer at the BCLC, was formerly VP of Corporate Security and Compliance at Great Canadian Gaming, parent company of the River Rock Casino. The fox is guarding the hen house.
— Garth Goode (@GGood987) August 29, 2018
For some time now, the connection of Robert Kroeker with the BC Lottery Corp. and the Great Canadian Gaming Corp. have raised some questions related to possible conflict of interests, especially in terms of the illegal money-laundering schemes which took place at the Hard Rock Casino which is owned and operated by Great Canadian Gaming.
He needs to resign from that position as well. It is a complete farce given his previous denial in 2015 that money laundering cannot take place at the River Rock Casino. That blatant statement destroys all of his credibility as VP of Corporate Security and Compliance at the BCLC. https://t.co/AdWnLqOw0k
— Garth Goode (@GGood987) October 5, 2018
At the end of August, he sent an e-mail to the executives of the Great Canadian, informing them that the BCLC took its compliance responsibilities extremely seriously, especially when anti-money laundering measures, terrorist organizations’ financing and personal privacy were concerned. Still, despite his cooperation at the time when the investigation of the Hard Rock Casino scheme took place, his occupation at the venue was considered questionable, considering the fact that he could not be absolutely impartial as head of compliance at the Great Canadian.
