Employees of the River Rock Casino Resort in Western Canada may have violated federal financial reporting laws by shredding paper records associated with large cash transactions—in effect enabling possible money laundering.
Great Canadian Gaming Corporation, which operates River Rock Casino, was informed of the possible violation by Global Television Network after filing a freedom of information request. The network then confronted Great Canadian with the allegations.
The Network reported that an executive of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation uncovered the fact that casino employees were shredding records associated with large transactions and did so at regular times each day.
Federal law requires reporting of transactions larger than $10,000 Canadian during a 24-hour period. GTN reported that the executive informed Great Canadian of the multiple violations.
The management of BC Lottery Corp. (BCLC) warned executives of Great Canadian about the shredding at a meeting in April of last year. The details of that meeting were uncovered by the freedom of information request.
Robert Kroeker, Vice President of Corporate Security at BCLC warned Great Canadian that BCLC takes its compliance responsibilities seriously.
Great Canadian operates ten casinos in British Columbia, including River Rock. It sent a statement to the broadcaster stating that it takes the laws “very seriously” and takes every effort to comply with them and maintain electronic copies of all large transactions.
“Great Canadian [Gaming Corporation] and River Rock [Casino Resort] have not been the subject of any enforcement activity regarding our practices or track record for filing required reports, said the statement.
This is the latest incident in a large money laundering scandal alleged for BC casinos.
Meanwhile Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has given his latest Minister, Bill Blair the responsibility for fighting money laundering, especially in BC. Blair is tasked with fighting organized crime and reduce gun violence.
Blair, a former Toronto chief of police was appointed minister of border security and organized crime reduction.
His mandate states: “You will be expected to work closely with provinces, territories, and municipalities, as well as community organizations, law enforcement and border agencies. This work should include a focus on cutting off money laundering which, as we have seen recently in British Columbia, supports our efforts to counter guns, gangs and opioid distribution.”
Global News has been reporting on extensive money laundering at BC casinos for more than a year. It reported in April “Criminal syndicates that control chemical factories in China’s booming Guangdong province are shipping narcotics, including fentanyl, to Vancouver, washing the drug sales in British Columbia’s casinos and high-priced real estate, and transferring laundered funds back to Chinese factories.”
Money apparently came from offshore and illegal banking networks connected to China.
Global’s revelations last year prompted B.C. Attorney General David Eby to testify before the Canadian Senate on what he called a money laundering method that he called “the Vancouver Model.” It involves money from wealthy Chinese players who launder it using lax BC casinos.
A year ago Eby commissioned an independent review by Peter German, a former high-ranking RCMP officer. He issued a blistering report that confirmed a possible $100 million in crime syndicate money laundered through BC casinos. Most of his recommendations have been implemented by the government.
Rules that have been imposed on BC casinos at Eby’s urging appear to be working to a degree because the province’s casinos claim their revenues are down as a result.
That’s the claim of the River Rock and Parq casinos.
Great Canadian says its revenues fell for the first six months of the year, tying them to losses at River Rock’s gaming tables. The new rules, implemented last December, require complete disclosures on transactions over $10,000. This apparently discourages a lot of such transactions.
Eby claims suspicious transactions in BC casinos had dropped to $200,000 in March from $20 million in July 2015.
The AG declared, “Certainly, we recognized at the very beginning that taking action on this would result in some financial reductions. And we expect all of our service providers to understand that in the name of cracking down on crime, and in the name of cracking down on money laundering, they should be prepared to see decreases in those high-stakes tables because this is an action we have to take.”
