“The hope was the federal money that was announced in the budget after our advocacy would be expanding existing resources. “It never occurred to me that there would be zero officers working on this file.” “We knew that there were inadequate federal resources and we’ve been pushing the feds for a long time on that,” Eby said. The RCMP’s money laundering division is funded for 25 officers but only 11 positions are filled and none of them is pursuing criminal investigations, opting instead to pursue simpler civil forfeiture cases intended to recover the proceeds of crime. He said he has long suspected that anti-money laundering documents collected by casinos were being sent for federal scrutiny, “but that no one was looking at them.” casinos had been unwittingly acting as “laundromats” for the proceeds of organized crime and that those funds were linked to drug trafficking and local real estate transactions.Ī new report by German detailing money laundering in the real estate, luxury automobile and horse racing sectors is currently being reviewed by the government before its release.Įby is hoping that new funding announced in the last federal budget - $70 million a year for five years - will reinvigorate criminal investigations into money laundering in B.C. Photo by Stuart Davis / Vancouver SunĪn independent review for the province by former RCMP commissioner Peter German said that certain B.C. Action at the “craps” table in the River Rock Casino in Richmond. casinos were implemented in December 2017, which drove suspicious transactions from a high of $20 million a month to $200,000 a month just four months later, according to Eby. New reporting rules to prevent money laundering in B.C. In many cases, the dirty money is simply gambled away.

Westcoast Homes & Design Previous IssuesĮby asserts that organized criminals are instead providing cash to gamblers directly through loan sharking or cash delivery services and getting clean money back upon repayment by the gambler.Vancouver Sun Run: Sign up & event info.

River rock casino funding