RCMP casino money laundering probe uncovered alleged 'terrorist financing' links
An RCMP investigation into underground banking and laundering of drug cash in B.C. casinos revealed links to “terrorist financing,” a B.C. government document obtained by Postmedia .
As Postmedia has exclusively reported, RCMP investigators and B.C. government documents demonstrate that Paul King Jin and his associates used an illegal money transfer business in Richmond to lend suspected drug-dealer cash to high-roller Chinese gamblers recruited from Macau who, with troubling ease, used massive wads of small bills to buy chips at River Rock Casino.
The suspected “terrorist financing” link is in a confidential “Section 86” report filed in July 2015 by B.C. Lottery Corp. to B.C.’s gaming enforcement branch, which is an arm of B.C.’s Ministry of Finance.
The RCMP and police in China show a massive underground banking network was directed from the Richmond money exchange business, with financial tentacles spreading into 600 bank accounts in mainland China, and also into accounts in Mexico and Peru, used by drug dealers to buy cocaine.
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The RCMP has evidence that shows the Richmond business sent more than $300 million offshore, and laundered about $220 million in cash in B.C., in just one year.
International wire transfers connected to drug dealing were covered up with fake trade invoices from Chinese companies, and also showed connections to companies in Iran — sources with knowledge of the investigation say. Investigators believe these Iranian companies are involved in terrorist financing.
The Section 86 report — the name refers to part of the provincial Gaming Control Act — says that in February 2015, BCLC staff met with the RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime unit, to “lodge a complaint (about) cash drop-offs at casinos involving a male by the name of Paul ‘King’ Jin who is associated to organized crime.” Jin, 50, had first appeared on the radar of BCLC anti-money laundering staff in 2012, government documents say.
In June and in July 2015, the Section 86 report says, BCLC’s director of anti-money laundering Ross Alderson met with RCMP’s federal serious and organized crime operations team, in order to “discuss the Jin file.”
In a July 2015 meeting, “Alderson was advised that (RCMP investigators) had now established a direct link from an ‘illegal cash’ facility which involved illicit funds being involved in drop-offs to casino patrons at River Rock Casino,” the Section 86 report says. “(RCMP) Inspector Cal Chrustie advised Alderson that their investigation had uncovered that potentially some of the funds at the cash house were linked to transnational drug trafficking and terrorist financing. No specific individuals other than Jin were named.” Neither Jin nor the cash house have been charged and the RCMP suspicions have not yet been proven.
On Monday, Postmedia informed Zachary Ng, a lawyer who has represented Paul Jin, of the allegations in the Section 86 report.
“At this point I have no comment,” Ng said.
“At this point I have no comment,” Ng said.
The Section 86 report says that in July 2015, at another meeting between Alderson and Chrustie, “Alderson was advised that the investigation had uncovered that some of the funds linked to transnational drug trafficking and terrorist financing was directly related to casino activity … also that several foreign law enforcement agencies were now involved.”
Regarding information conveyed from the RCMP to BCLC in July 2015, the Section 86 report says: “the information discussed could have a potentially devastating impact on the casino industry should it be true or leaked out to media.”
This report, which was filed to the gaming enforcement branch’s director of compliance, Len Meilleur, says that Meilleur had also spoken to the RCMP’s Chrustie about “troubling information … involving casinos.”
“As a result of that conversation (gaming enforcement branch assistant deputy minister) John Mazure had been briefed and that likely (then-B.C. finance minister) Mike de Jong would also be briefed,” the report says.
The report raises questions about money laundering in B.C. casinos and why they were not investigated before 2015, for some reason.
While discussing updates to the Jin file in July 2015, RCMP and BCLC staff also “discussed how over a number of years a number of investigative agencies had highlighted concerns about some of the funds entering casinos, and those investigations had not progressed,” the Section 86 report says.
The report says that BCLC executives including Brad Desmarais, a former Mountie, “had reached out to various agencies prior to Feb. 2015 to investigate the matter, and (RCMP) Federal Serious and Organized Crime were the first agency which agreed to look at it.”
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On Monday Postmedia contacted a B.C. Liberal caucus representative, in order to ask de Jong if he had been informed in 2015 about the RCMP’s concerns that terrorist financing and transnational drug trafficking networks were connected to alleged money laundering in B.C. casinos. Postmedia was not able to interview de Jong before deadline on this story.
In a previous interview with Postmedia, completed before Postmedia revealed details of the RCMP’s probe last week, de Jong said it was “the latter part of 2015 we started to get information highlighting concerns around money laundering.”
“I think you have to be careful investigating the track money coming into the country ” de Jong said, about the underground banking and money laundering concerns revealed in an MNP LLP audit of B.C. casinos, which was completed in 2016. “Is it through casinos, through the real estate market? We now have a pretty solid idea of how much of the real estate market involves truly illicit foreign money.”
B.C. Attorney General David Eby was asked for comments on the Section 86 report quoted in this story, and whether he has been briefed on concerns relating to terrorist financing.
Eby was not made available for comment, but provided this statement: “I have hired Peter German to conduct an independent review of British Columbia’s anti-money-laundering policies and practices in relation to B.C. casinos. I have asked him specifically to identify any issues connected with any particular crimes, or specific areas of our economy.”
German, whose appointment was announced last week, is a lawyer and a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP and an expert on anti-money laundering laws.
The July 2015 Section 86 report also says, that “there was communication between BCLC and (Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch) investigations alluding to intelligence around both Jin and illegal gaming in the Lower Mainland.”
B.C. Lottery Corp. was asked to respond to details in the July 2015 Section 86 report.
“Regarding your request for comment related to the Section 86 report, it is public knowledge that there are at least two active police investigations underway related to allegations of illegal gambling and money laundering,” a BCLC spokesman said in an email. “Since these investigations are underway, we are not in a position to provide comment.”
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