The British Columbia money-laundering probe led by a Supreme Court justice last week entered into Chinese territory—specifically, efforts by Great Canadian Gaming’s 2015 efforts to lure rich Chinese VIPs fleeing a corruption crackdown.
Cullen Commission attorney Alison Latimer questioned Great Canadian acting CEO Terrance Doyle about his predecessor Walter Soo, who wanted to attract rich Chinese under investigation for money laundering by the U.S. Justice Department. Soo reportedly invited them to play at River Rock Casino in B.C. Doyle testified that Soo didn’t want the VIPs questioned about the source of their cash, because it would put the casino’s business “in serious trouble.”
One such player, a self-proclaimed real estate developer and coal miner from China, carried out 450 large cash transactions, nearly 100 of them deemed suspicious, between 2006 and 2017. The company put cash restrictions on him, but executives including Doyle intervened to try to keep him as customer.
That patron kept $3 million in River Rock casino chips at his home, and obtained cash to buy more after calling several unidentified people in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China.
The commission also heard of an email indicating that several Great Canadian executives, including Doyle and manager Peter Goudron, received briefings by the company’s compliance manager, Robert Koreke on the government’s “mounting concerns” that casino patrons were buying chips with suspicious cash.
Latimer confronted Doyle with emails in which he and another casino manager said they opposed cash restrictions on a woman who declined to name the source of her cash.
In 2015, Doyle also complained when the BC Lottery Corp. banned 46 VIPs who were allegedly part of a cash delivery network.
