ResultsVille
On Friday we noted that the Cullen Inguiry had learned that RCMP Senior Operations officer Calvin Chrustie warned the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) and the Gambling Policy Enforcement Branch (GPEB) that there were potential ties between organized crime and the cash being used by high rollers at BC casinos back in June of 2015.
Sam Cooper has followed up with a full report at Global News. Here is his lede:
...A senior RCMP officer alerted B.C. casino officials in June 2015 that he believed Mainland China’s “financial elite” had “close ties to organized crime” and there was concern that massive amounts of cash were flooding into casinos via “capital flight” from China, the province’s money laundering inquiry heard Friday...
Then GPEB director Len Meilleur took notes. Mr. Cooper' piece continues:
...The inquiry also heard of notes that Meilleur took as the RCMP’s investigation continued in fall 2015, after Chrustie’s team had allegedly linked (Paul King) Jin and River Rock VIP gamblers to transnational money laundering and drug-trafficking networks.
According to the notes, RCMP said “at this point in time” no one in B.C. casinos could say they were unaware of the connection between money laundering, casinos and suspected proceeds of crime.
And the RCMP saw a link between casinos and fentanyl trafficking and money laundering. But the Lottery Corp. was still arguing “no one has been convicted in terms of money laundering in casinos,” Meilleur testified...
So. What was done about all this?
...(A)fter fall 2015, according to Meilleur, his boss, branch general manager John Mazure, was asking the BC Liberal minister responsible for gaming, Mike de Jong, to issue a ministerial directive that all large cash transactions include a declaration for source of funds.
If de Jong had issued such a directive, it would have solved B.C. Lottery Corp.’s large cash transaction problem sooner, Meilleur said.
He testified that Mazure had complained to him that de Jong’s office wanted the branch to continue seeking alternatives to large cash transactions, but no one would take the step needed: to order the Lottery Corp. to determine source of funds before accepting cash...
Gosh.
...A senior RCMP officer alerted B.C. casino officials in June 2015 that he believed Mainland China’s “financial elite” had “close ties to organized crime” and there was concern that massive amounts of cash were flooding into casinos via “capital flight” from China, the province’s money laundering inquiry heard Friday...
Then GPEB director Len Meilleur took notes. Mr. Cooper' piece continues:
...The inquiry also heard of notes that Meilleur took as the RCMP’s investigation continued in fall 2015, after Chrustie’s team had allegedly linked (Paul King) Jin and River Rock VIP gamblers to transnational money laundering and drug-trafficking networks.
According to the notes, RCMP said “at this point in time” no one in B.C. casinos could say they were unaware of the connection between money laundering, casinos and suspected proceeds of crime.
And the RCMP saw a link between casinos and fentanyl trafficking and money laundering. But the Lottery Corp. was still arguing “no one has been convicted in terms of money laundering in casinos,” Meilleur testified...
So. What was done about all this?
...(A)fter fall 2015, according to Meilleur, his boss, branch general manager John Mazure, was asking the BC Liberal minister responsible for gaming, Mike de Jong, to issue a ministerial directive that all large cash transactions include a declaration for source of funds.
If de Jong had issued such a directive, it would have solved B.C. Lottery Corp.’s large cash transaction problem sooner, Meilleur said.
He testified that Mazure had complained to him that de Jong’s office wanted the branch to continue seeking alternatives to large cash transactions, but no one would take the step needed: to order the Lottery Corp. to determine source of funds before accepting cash...
Gosh.
What could have possibly possessed Mr. de Jong's office to seek such 'alternatives'?
Is it possible that the fine folks there including, one can only assume, the good Mr. de Jong himself, were hoping that such alternatives would ensure the continuance of those 'better results' that Mr. Rich Coleman had promised after he shut down the illegal gambling enforcement team (IGET) six years earlier?
Which leads to another question...
Why, exactly, were Mess'rs de Jong and Coleman looking for 'alternatives' and 'better results', in the first place?
Hockey bags filled with cash for casino high rollers?...You bet.
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9 comments:
Bottom of the page 'link" Hockey Bags ... You bet
https://www.blogger.com/# ooops
Fixed - thanks.
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Words of Wisdom from BC Liberal Leader MLA Andrew Wilkinson @ the Legislature:
https://www.leg.bc.ca/documents-data/debate-transcripts/41st-parliament/2nd-session/20171030am-Hansard-n46
R. Singh: Okay. The member for Langely East "shut IIGET down" right after the team had issued such an important ........ snip
A. Wilkinson: This, of course, is a very important issue for all of us to be aware of because it affects the widespread role in our society of both gaming, which has become the norm, and also the ability or the possibility for money laundering to occur in our society, which is something that we have to be very vigilant about.
Most of us will remember that gaming was illegal in this country until about 1976. Some of us are old enough to remember people celebrating winning the Irish sweepstakes because they’d bought a lottery ticket from Ireland. In 1976, to pay for the Olympics, the phenomenon of lotteries was legalized across Canada. Subsequently, people realized that we were letting an awful lot of revenue travel to Las Vegas and Reno rather than being invested here in Canada. As gaming developed over those decades, then gaming became a structured part of our society.
Of course, here in British Columbia, it is very tightly regulated (????), and it is an industry that has grown up to be, really, part of the fabric of our society. We’re glad, of course, that people enjoy gaming and spend their money here rather than in the United States. That whole business of the free bus service down to the Tulalip Casino seems to have disappeared because we did a better job???? of running the industry here than they did in Washington state T/F. {maybe Washington state was doing a BETTER job on enforcement and the bad guys went north}
Snip
It’s dealt with by national bodies such as FINTRAC, and we’ll come back to the jurisdiction of this, which is largely federal. It’s done by local law enforcement agencies, which are largely administered by the RCMP (DE), and it’s done by the gaming policy (DE) and enforcement branch (DE) here in the government of British Columbia.
The history of this has evolved. In 2009, the Integrated Illegal Gaming Enforcement team was actually disbanded (RC) on the advice of a study that was done that found it was an inefficient allocation of resources (RC). It was disbanded by the agreement of the board of directors (RC), which included a number of chiefs of police and representatives from the provincial police services branch.
These things have to evolve. They cannot remain static. The perpetrators who are trying to engage in money laundering continue to evolve around us, and we have to catch up with their activities.
There has been ongoing investigation related to these issues. Of course, the release of information to the public (RC) could have and may have jeopardized investigations, which none of us want to see happen. It’s very important these investigations be allowed to unfold in the normal fashion, without political interference (RC). So our role in this is, of course, as the Opposition, to make sure that the government is taking this matter seriously and that these investigations are allowed to proceed without undue influence (DE).
NVG--
Ya.
And I'm sure all kinds of high rollers and members of the whaling industry were all lined up to take that bus down to Tulalip back in the day.
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For what it's worth, Ian Mulgrew is over at the other side of the house doing his level post-media best to make the stench from the laundering rot at GCC seem like a tempest in a teapot.
Ian Mulgrew writes on Feb 15, 2021:
"Testimony on gaming is coming to an end at the Inquiry into Money Laundering with the main accusation in tatters that B.C. casinos were well-oiled machines for cleaning Dirty Money.
Mulgrew continues: "At worst, they may have been money-pits for proceeds of crime from crooks who liked to gamble, or those who borrowed money from criminals — both mostly losing the ill-gotten gains.
Attorney-General David Eby’s drive against a so-called “Vancouver Model” of organized crime with tentacles linking casinos, China, fentanyl and nefarious sleight-of-hand is sputtering in the face of facts.
By 2016, B.C. casinos were leading the global gaming industry in terms of anti-money-laundering measures."
Thanks Anon-Above--
Hmmmm....
Will have to have a close look given that Mr. Mulgrew has a decent track record.
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Something off about that article for sure.
Definitely not even close to what Mulgrew is capable of.
This piece is disjointed, oft times off-topic, rambling, convoluted, light on facts, even contradictory and clearly wrong in places. It's as if he knows and tries to come out with the truth in certain parts, while also knowing he needs to be blowing fog and obfuscating the corruption coming out in the inquiry.
Who knows--maybe the higher ups, like Harold Munro, get their hands and re-write pieces like this before it goes to publication?
Makes me realize, once more, how important the media is to the conversations a society has, as well as what gets lost when it goes bad and won't come out with the facts.
Also reminded that the BCRail robbery could not have taken place without the complicity of that small closed-circle of pundits who got paid to pass themselves off as the certifiable media while willfully ignoring or obscuring everything that mattered.
Anon-Above--
Having now read the piece, which is clearly opinion and not reportage, I agree that the Mr. Mulgrew's sweeping conclusions are not fully supported by the evidence offered.
Busy day - will try to write something up later.
As to the BC Rail deal at the time it was going down...Well, some of us were described as cult members by one prominent local pro-pundit for being silly enough to actually pay attention.
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Yes, remember that whole era when the $indicate came to town bigly.
It was life-changing to watch how such immense power was brought to bear on this little seaside province.
An essential element of the take-over was the capturing of the media corp$(e), particularly the political pundits, who closed ranks around the BCRail robbery like a team of special-ops. agents following orders from PAB.
On the other hand, thought you independent guys, especially Mary, did work that still stands out for its importance and integrity. Appreciated that a lot--so, thanks for all that work. And for the record, the cult charge never meant anything to me and it always struck me as too much protesting by the culpable.
Reckon we should consider ourselves lucky that Sam Cooper is willing to break ranks to report on at least some of the liberal laundering story. Has got to be a real tight-wire walk for him; and so, let's wish him well.
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