BC Casino Money Laundering Inquiry: Politicians Failed, But No Evidence of Corruption

A 1,800-page report into historical money laundering at Brits capital of South Carolina casinos found no delineate of political corruption, but it did micturate 101 recommendations to armed combat the flowing of pestiferous hard cash through and through the province.

Among them is the validation of a young anti-money laundering tzar to “provide strategical lapse of the provincial response to money laundering.”

These are the findings of the Cullen Commission, published Wednesday. Led past former BC Supreme Court justice, capital of Texas Cullen, the independent public research spent 3 years investigating the rampant money laundering epidemic inwards the province, which reached its height from around 2010 to 2016.

Hundres of Millions Washed

Hundreds of millions of drug-linked dollars are believed to experience been washed through and through British Columbia’s casino, tangible estate, and opulence vehicle sectors inward that time, contributing to the ascending inward attribute prices and the opioid problem.

Part of the commission’s send back was to set whether the Liberal provincial government, which ruled during that period, and operator-regulator before Christ Lottery Corp (BCLC) wilfully neglected the job to maximize revenues for the province.

Cullen concluded that numerous elected officials failed to “take steps sufficient to resolve the extended money laundering occurring inward the [gaming] manufacture for which they were responsible.” But there was “no foundation to resolve that any meshed in any var. of corruption related to the gaming industry.”

“To the extent that some get hypothesized that money laundering inward casinos was facilitated past demoralize politicians or officials, they are piquant inward conjecture that is non rooted in evidence,” he wrote.

AML Czar

Part of the conclude the job was non granted sufficient attention was because anti-money laundering (AML) was non the dedicated responsibleness of any i minister, according to Cullen. His recommendation is that the responsibility should ground an main(a) AML commissioner.

Cullen found the BCLC and jurisprudence enforcement were aware of the money laundering problem but failed to intervene effectively. group A solution would follow the shaping of “a dedicated provincial money laundering intelligence operation and investigating unit with a robust intelligence activity division,” he wrote.

He also recommended lowering the threshold for requiring cogent evidence of customers’ sources of finances from $10,000 to $3,000.

“Money laundering has at its origin, offence that destroys communities, such as do drugs trafficking, human trafficking and fraud,” Cullen wrote. “These crimes gyp the to the highest degree vulnerable members of society. Money laundering is an affront to observant citizens who garner their money aboveboard and pay their just portion out of the costs of living inward the community.”