Former British Columbia Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen’s 1,800-page report on money laundering in British Columbia names five elected officials responsible for the gambling file during his time in office, three of whom contributed to the increase of money laundering by not taking urgent action, according to the report. concluded.
But while former Liberal gaming ministers Rich Coleman and Mike de Jong and former Prime Minister Christy Clark showed an “unwillingness” to take action, neither was motivated by political, personal or financial gain, Cullen writes.
“While some could have done more, there is no evidence that any of the failures were motivated by corruption,” he wrote.
Gerald Baier, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia, says that while the report is highly critical of BC Liberals and their inaction, it does not present a “smoking gun” of criminal intent.
“There is no evidence that they were winning individually or as part of this type of behaviour, however if Cullen was giving them a grade I’m sure it would be something in the C category, saying they could have done more.” or that they looked the other way”.
rich coleman
Rich Coleman served as BC’s gaming minister for three terms: 2001 to 2005, 2008 to 2011, and 2012 to 2013.
During the first four years of his term, there is little evidence of significant money laundering in the province. But as of 2008, Cullen writes that Coleman should have been positioned to “respond to this growing crisis from its earliest stages.”
According to the report, Coleman received advice from the BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) that the province had “industry-leading anti-money laundering strategies,” and also heard concerns from the investigative division of the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch (GPEB). ) and the RCMP Integrated Proceeds of Crime unit that BC casinos were accepting proceeds of crime.
Coleman responded by asking BCLC’s Robert Kroeker to conduct a review of anti-money laundering measures in the gaming industry.
Cullen found this action to be “prudent”. But while Coleman was seeking advice behind the scenes, he was publicly downplaying the problem. For example, in 2011, Coleman publicly criticized a senior RCMP investigator who had confirmed to CBC News that he had found dirty money in BC casinos.
Cullen concluded that “[Coleman] he should have recognized that aggressive action was needed to put an immediate end to suspicious activity which, by the end of his term, was clearly out of control. Mr. Coleman took no such action. In this regard, in my opinion, a critical opportunity for decisive action was missed.”
shirley link
Shirley Bond was the minister responsible for gaming from March 2011 to February 2012, while also juggling responsibilities as minister for public safety and attorney general.
Cullen wrote that Bond kept the game file at a critical time, when suspicious transactions were beginning to proliferate in BC.
But he found that she had little experience with the industry and was given no briefing or instructions on the issues she was facing.
When Coleman’s commissioned review of Kroeker was completed, Bond implemented nine of the 10 recommendations put forward.
The tenth recommendation, the “creation of an interagency task force to investigate and gather intelligence on suspicious activities and transactions at BC gaming facilities,” was delayed until the impact of the first nine could be assessed.
Cullen wrote that the immediate creation of such a task force could have had a significant impact on money laundering in the gaming industry.
But he ultimately concluded that “given the information available to Ms Bond at this time, it is simply not reasonable to expect that she would have recognized the urgent need to take these steps.”
mike dejong
Mike de Jong served as the minister responsible for gaming between 2013 and 2017, a time when suspicious transactions in BC peaked.
Cullen found that between 2013 and 2015, de Jong “didn’t take any meaningful action in response.”
“It does not appear that Mr. de Jong received information that would have led him to identify a need to act,” Cullen wrote.
In September 2015, de Jong received alarming information about the state of the industry, including that in 2014, the BCLC reported 1,631 suspicious transactions with a total value of more than $195.3 million, an average of almost 4.5 transactions, and more than $500,000 per day.
BC Liberal Mike de Jong says he is glad the Cullen Commission found his party was not corrupt, but acknowledges he could have done more to act on the issue.
De Jong responded by creating the Joint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team and issuing a letter with instructions to the BCLC.
Cullen wrote that de Jong achieved these measures with “remarkable speed” but that the letter to the BCLC did not go far enough, because it did not require the BCLC to stop accepting highly suspect cash immediately.
Cullen also found that prior to 2015, de Jong could have independently sought more information about the state of the industry for which he was responsible.
“That it was under Mr. de Jong’s watch that the tide of suspicious transactions finally turned and suspicious cash flowing into the province’s casinos began to decline is testament to the importance of his efforts,” Cullen wrote.
“The scale of the crisis affecting the province’s casinos at the moment required much more decisive action. While positive, the measures taken by Mr de Jong were simply not commensurate with the urgency of the problem facing the industry at that time.
christian clark
Christy Clark was prime minister from 2011 to 2017. Cullen found that as prime minister, Clark did not have the same level of commitment as the other politicians mentioned in the report, or the legal powers over the industry that the gaming minister had.
Cullen discovered that Clark was concerned about money laundering in the province after reading about suspicious cash transactions in media reports. But although Clark acknowledged that “more needed to be done”, he assumed that the recommendations made by the Kroeker report were working and trusted that his ministers would keep abreast of the problem.
Cullen said Clark did not understand the scope of the crisis, after testifying that prior to 2015 he was unaware that buy-ins in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, often paid for in $20 bills, frequently occurred at Lower Mainland casinos.
In September 2015, de Jong informed Clark that “we have a problem.” Cullen wrote that at the time, Clark did not ask whether “the large amounts of cash identified as suspicious were being accepted by the casinos and thus contributing to the province’s revenue.”
Cullen wrote that while Clark did not bear sole responsibility for stopping the growth of money laundering, his inaction on the file after 2015 contributed to its rise.
“The Prime Minister learned that casinos operated by a Crown corporation and regulated by the government were reporting huge amounts of suspicious cash and, in her words, this was cause for ‘serious concern,'” he wrote.
“A response that failed to determine whether these funds were contributing to the province’s revenue and failed to stop this practice for the remainder of her tenure as Prime Minister was inadequate.”
david eby
David Eby became BC’s attorney general and minister responsible for gaming in 2017 after the provincial NDP came to power.
In his first days in office, Eby was briefed by the BCLC and the GPEB, which provided conflicting accounts of what was happening in the industry. Cullen found that while the BCLC described the industry’s anti-money laundering regime as “leading in North America,” the GPEB “represented an industry awash in illicit funds and a lottery corporation that was reluctant to take any action.” in response”.
Eby responded by seeking outside advice, leading to RCMP Commissioner Peter German’s 2018 report, which found that $100 million had been “cleansed” in BC
Cullen wrote that Eby acted “prudently” and that his actions did not contribute to the rise of money laundering in BC.
Reference-www.cbc.ca