HEARING BRINGS OUT CONSPIRACY THEORISTS
Plenty of attendees offer their studied input on money laundering at public provincial inquiry
The one-man provincial inquiry into money laundering had its first of five public meetings the other night and it was not a pretty sight.
About 70 people filled a downtown Vancouver Fairmont Hotel conference room where commissioner Austin Cullen solicited the views of anyone who cared to come forward.
He heard from a dozen — one complaining about foreign mothers bearing children in Richmond, another about having a mile-high skyscraper rejected by crooked politicians, and a martial-arts-trained poker player pleading for protection.
Did someone say this entire exercise could go off the rails?
Chad McLennan, a self-described inventor and licensed security-safety officer, quoted Balzac via The Godfather — “All great fortunes originate with a single crime.”
For him, the key issue was corrupt corporations and bent politicians.
He recounted how his 13-page plan for mile-high skyscrapers, housing one million people in a kilometre square area to stop urban sprawl was blithely rejected.
“The government no longer has the credibility to be independent in creating legislation, nor do they have the right to have sole control of the police, the military or many other public institutions.”
Brandishing a sheaf of notes, he was frustrated as his speaking time ran out: “I have designed something I call the civilization system — basically a system of government for the future. You’re all going to be hearing about it.”
Others gave equally esoteric presentations.
Francois Hebert, 38, said he moved to B.C. about 15 years ago to work as a mechanical engineer but turned to poker because of the downturn in 2009.
He claimed he won $276,000 and as a result was targeted by gangsters.
“Today, I came to the commission because I am a victim of the enforcement branch of the money-laundering scheme,” Hebert said.
“I am a victim of organized crime, not limited to but including the Filipino mafia, the Vietnamese mafia, the Chinese gestapo and believe it or not the North Korean spies. I came today because my life is in danger. I have lost everything.”
He insisted an economic war was being waged by foreign terrorists.
“I am asking and this is no joke. Look at me — I look very harsh, I look very rough — I am asking protection from the commission,” he said before returning to his seat.
Similarly, Ivanco Keremelevski presented a disjointed theory that the WCB, ICBC and other institutions were involved in money laundering.
And John Murphy said he’d been battling organized crime for 25 years before beginning to read an indictment of his union.
His 10-minute time limit expired, too, before he could get through the numerous typed pages.
“The biggest money launderers are lawyers and the WCB committed a $12-billion fraud ...” he said as his microphone was cut.
Cynthia Rautio said Cullen should investigate birth tourism.
“These folks are clearly paying thousands and thousands of dollars for these services,” she maintained.
“In Richmond, 25 per cent of the babies born at Richmond General Hospital are to nonresident mothers. ... Hospital bills being paid by wads of cash should be raising some eyebrows.”
Others covered well-trodden ground.
Surrey lawyer Mark Brandon blamed his colleagues and argued the Law Society of B.C. encouraged money laundering by backing exemptions for the profession to cash-monitoring laws: “If it comes from a bank, they have to report. If it comes from a notary, they have to report. But if it comes from a lawyer’s trust account they do not have to report. … I think the law society has something to answer to.”
Surrey developer Jack Saran repeated charges he has made for several years — that he was approached for a bribe in 2010 and that the municipal development regime is prone to corruption.
Aimee McKinney was on-point but had little to offer other than hearsay that seemingly will be substantiated later by a friend fired in 2014 trying to get B.C. Lottery Corp. to stop accepting suspicious cash.
A former pit-boss from 1998 till 2005, Kris Selezinka was incredulous.
I just wanted everyone to know exactly how the process works and how absolutely impossible it is for what has happened for so long to have happened.
“I just want to speak on the egregious systematic corruption between BCLC and Great Canadian Gaming Corp. because obviously multiple people have obviously voiced concerns throughout and been silenced,” he fumed.
“People are scared to come forward because they are still employed. ... I just wanted everyone to know exactly how the process works and how absolutely impossible it is for what has happened for so long to have happened. It’s embarrassing as a citizen of the city. I just find it completely unacceptable.”
So did Brett Carels.
“I have been following the news and it just seems to me that B.C. is the Cayman Islands of the northern hemisphere,” he said.
“It’s nothing we should be proud of. ... I have not heard of one arrest for money laundering in this province.
“Not one. I have only heard of dismissed cases. Meanwhile, I’m hearing every day about somebody in the U.S. being arrested for money laundering, and big sentences, too. What does that tell the criminals about B.C.?”
Cullen didn’t respond.
“We come to these meetings not to provide information but to obtain it,” he told the crowd.
The inquiry is saddled with a mandate as broad as all tomorrow — it’s supposed to determine how much money laundering is going on, where it is happening, its scope, its extent and whether it’s a result of lapses of judgment or dishonesty and greed.
“Our responses to everything that we hear, see and read will be made at a later stage in the process, through an interim report to be issued in November 2020,” Cullen said.
He added there are profound social harms that flow from money laundering, a particularly insidious crime “like the transmission of a serious infectious disease in the body politic.”
The other meetings across the province likely will be as messy as Wednesday’s — all over the map.
But they appear needed as a way of releasing some of the built-up anger at the cronyism and corruption some apparently see everywhere in B.C.