British Columbia casino regulators identified a connection between millions of dollars of money laundered in B.C. casinos and a 29-year old man who was killed in a gangland style murder in Surrey in 2014. This link was made in a report obtained through a public records act request by CTV News.
The gaming regulators referred to the cash as “blood money.”
The unsolved murder of Birinder Khangura in a fusillade of bullets occurred in September 2014.
Six weeks later Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch’s Senior Director Joe Schalk wrote that this incident along with a similar shooting “added to the concern of suspicious cash being brought into B.C. casinos.” The report obtained by CTV News was heavily redacted. So much so that it was not obvious why the gaming investigators looked at Khangura or what the second incident was.
Two months later, according to CTV News, Schalk was fired without cause.
This has prompted former prosecutor Sandy Garossino to demand an inquiry. “Why were they fired? Were they fired because of this report? This has an appearance of ‘shoot the messenger’ from the government about concerns being raised about money laundering, loan sharking and organized crime in casinos,” she said.
In recent months Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators have reported on an underground bank funded with money from China that laundered more than $220 million through BC casinos. At least some of that money alleged laundered money from fentanyl sales.
The B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC) which oversees and licenses all casinos in the province, has declined to comment on this case.
In the last year British Columbia has adopted strict rules that prevent casinos from accepting more than $10,000 in cash after former Mounty commissioner Peter German wrote a scathing report. Many of his recommendations were adopted by the BC government in 2017.
A second report by German is expected to be released within weeks. The Canadian government is also promising to increase funding to further crack down on money laundering.
