Eby more hopeful of action on money-laundering
B.C.’s attorney-general says he hopes a federal election won’t get in the way of Ottawa fully co-operating with the province to deal with serious allegations of money laundering related to billions of dollars in transactions involving drugs, real estate and luxury vehicles.
David Eby said he was more confident after meeting with Organized Crime Minister Bill Blair on Tuesday after he failed to get any action when he brought the problem to the attention of other federal cabinet ministers as well as raising it at meetings with his provincial and territorial counterparts.
“I’m increasingly hopeful that we will now see some traction on this,” Eby told a news conference with Blair after the two met to discuss B.C.’s concerns.
Eby has said he was shocked the RCMP didn’t provide any information on the extent of money laundering in B.C., but he did forward information to a Paris-based group that produced an international report that says $1 billion a year is funnelled through the province’s casinos.
Blair said he wants to assure Canadians the federal government will deal with the issue more effectively.
“There’s information that, clearly, both of our governments need and we need to share and we need to work on together,” he said, adding he has spoken with Peter German, a former Mountie who is conducting a second review of money laundering in B.C.
Eby said in the last 24 hours the RCMP had advised German he would get the information he needs for his review, which is due in March, but he would wait to see what happens.
He said both he and German also want information the RCMP passed on to the Financial Action Task Force, a body of G7 countries fighting money laundering, terrorist financing and threats to the international system.
The report issued last July says money was being laundered in B.C. through an underground banking network and part of its illegal activities involve money from illicit drugs, as well as illegal gambling and extortion, to supply cash to Chinese gamblers in Canada.
Eby said despite Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate last year for Blair to take action on money laundering, it’s just a first step toward what the federal government must do.
“There is still insufficient capacity to investigate, detect and prosecute these things,” he said.
He added that B.C. is aiming to take action as quickly as possible, “but we need the feds along for the ride.”