The Cullen Commission’s final report, released Wednesday, delves into organized crime cash filtered by the province’s casinos, the real estate industry and elsewhere. While concluding that the CBA government, police and the federal anti-money laundering agency did not do enough to stop the crime, the 1,800-page report found no evidence of corruption. The committee identified “amazing” levels of money laundering and what Cullen himself described as a “failure of will” to tackle it. “People should go to jail for this,” Fred Pinnock, former commander of the RCMP illegal gambling team, told Global News. “I hoped that there would be support for criminal investigations that would result from this exercise. “I do not see this happening and I do not see the bad actors who led this nightmare of money laundering being held accountable.” The story goes on under the ad
Read more: Public money laundering investigation finds “no evidence” of political corruption in BC
Pinnock led BC’s Integrated Illegal Gambling Enforcement Team in charge of illegal casino policing from 2005 to 2008. He testified at the committee hearings that he had repeatedly expressed the need to extend the unit’s mandate to BC Lottery Corporation casinos and argument for the unit for targeting organized crime in government casinos. There was no interest in his idea, he said in a previous interview, and he was effectively sidelined by RCMP leaders and retired. His unit was disbanded by the BC Liberals in 2009. 2:19 Report says PK politicians may have been complicit in money laundering but were not corrupt The report states that BC politicians were involved in money laundering. they may have been complicit in money laundering but they were not corrupt In an exclusive interview Thursday, Pinnock said he was “comforted” to know that, years after he first spoke in 2006, others would come to share his views on the extent of the problem. The story goes on under the ad “I was driven by nothing more than the desire to contribute further to public safety by volunteering to witness or, hopefully, with the consent of the committee,” he said. “I hope history will show that the public has been well served by this. The case is still pending for me. “
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While official investigators received legal representation to safeguard the risk to their reputation, Pinocch said he had not fully funded legal counsel as a plaintiff. If he had, he said, there would have been a tougher confrontation between “bad actors” and possibly “full of additional information” that the Commissioner could have thought of. Trending Stories
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“I felt like an uneven stadium. “I felt like we were in the ring with one hand tied behind our backs,” he said. “I did my best to identify possible ways for the commission to find out who was responsible for this and I was surprised by the line of inquiry in many cases.” 12:05 Extensive interview: The former head of the BC illegal gambling enforcement team had expressed concerns Extensive interview: The former head of the BC illegal gambling enforcement team had expressed concerns – July 10, 2018 Another informant, Muriel LaBine, said she supported the committee’s 101 recommendations, but thought some might be difficult to implement. The story goes on under the ad The inquiry called on the province to set up an independent commissioner to focus on combating money laundering, amending the law on mortgage brokers and the regulation on real estate services, and forcing casinos to lower the threshold to $ 3,000 for the requirement of proof of a player’s source of funds. “Most lagged behind when they no longer talked about casino revenue and how the people in charge of the casinos, how it affected their income,” said LaBine, who worked as a dealer supervisor in the 1990s. for the Great Canadian Gaming Casino in Richmond. “Casino executives have stock options and when revenue increases, the share increases [and] they can be further expanded. “
Read more: Former BC casino supervisor whistles over when Macau’s money laundering may have erupted
LaBine said it would see young men – borrowed sharks, he believed – bring customers with them and pass on baccarat players $ 20 bills and casino chips. He realized that the crumpled banknotes, wrapped in elastic bands, were unlikely to come from a bank. In 2019, it went public, sharing its handwritten diary with casino notes and BC Gambling Revenue documents that seemed to record the exact moment that Macau-type money laundering erupted in the province. The Cullen Commission’s final report described a similar picture, depicting people arriving at Vancouver casinos with large bags of cash, usually $ 20 bills. He also mentioned a new number: BC casinos accepted $ 1.2 billion in cash transactions of $ 10,000 or more in 2014 alone. The story goes on under the ad 3:49 The former employee in the casino of BC. whistles the schedule of the supposed money laundering. The finding that there was no evidence of corruption was a “shock”, Labine said, given how long money laundering had been a problem and how little successive governments and BC police had been able to combat it. He called the “lack of will” that Cullen describes “nonsense” and “a ridiculous statement.” “I felt betrayed,” she said in an interview. “To continue for 20 years and just turned a blind eye to it? “It’s very, very difficult to come to terms with that – there is no reward somewhere on the line.” LaBine also said that political donations to government parties by casino owners, service providers and staff should have been considered more carefully. “We can not allow this to happen again,” he said. “We will put safeguards, we will put roadblocks – this does not mean that the bad guys will not find a way to overcome the roadblocks, so we must be vigilant and careful.” The story goes on under the ad
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The RCMP said in a statement that it was examining Cullen’s report and was fully involved in the investigation. BC Attorney General David Abby said he was confident his colleagues in Ottawa would be disappointed with the failures of the federal money laundering regime described in the report. The provincial government will work on the proposed reforms, he added. – with files from am Cooper and The Canadian Press © 2022 Global News, part of Corus Entertainment Inc.
