Accusations fly at inquiry into money laundering
Long-held grievances, theories get stage as hearing provides social release valve
From farmland supplanted by mansions to human trafficking in casinos, welcome to Richmond.
Listening to speakers at the penultimate public hearing of B.C.’S one-man commission into money-laundering, the bedroom community might as well be Sodom on the Sea.
The hospital seemingly accepts thousands in cash for birthing foreign babies; the city council is wilfully blind to corruption; the “smart” people use money changers instead of banks to import capital; and the construction industry is greased with suitcases stuffed with cash.
“The four red flags for money laundering — Richmond screams them all: cars, jets, casinos, mansions,” Sonya Niter said. “We are the gateway.”
As for those to blame, well, the former Liberal administration, especially Rich Coleman, was front and centre in a lot of minds.
“I don’t know if you know this, but Gordon Campbell lives in Ontario,” Peter Hannsens told the audience as if the former premier had taken up residence in the lowest circle of Hades.
“All of this is really outrageous. I’m from a family of distinguished lawyers … a lot of people who were in positions of power need to be brought to account.”
Perley Holmes thought so, too: “It would be very satisfying to see another mug shot of Gordon Campbell with some of his cronies.”
Mind you, his beef about ironworker construction contracts occurred back between 2002 and 2004, and he conceded: “I’m only going by memory.”
Jackie Turner couldn’t believe people were paying thousands in property taxes with cash: “I think city hall should be investigated.”
The crowd of about 80 in the Vancouver Airport Hilton Hotel meeting room Thursday night erupted in applause and cheers. The hearings — held in Vancouver,
Victoria and Kelowna already — have given a stage to those with a worthwhile opinion as well as those with longheld grievances, hobby horses and theories about the nexus between the powers that be and organized crime.
Along with trenchant views, they have provided a social release valve.
Robert Farina, who said he had been “taken for a ride for millions of dollars,” came to reveal the rot in the building industry where money arrived in suitcases — though he hadn’t actually seen the suitcases.
“I’m the key guy in all the projects,” he insisted. “I’ve seen it all. I’ve dealt with every swindler across the board … ( but) I can’t speak because I have gag orders on me.”
Fortunately, I guess, the commission has arrangements to receive information in private.
Ken Mclennan came to address what he saw as “ample money laundering” affecting every taxpayer, “an onerous issue that’s a big black eye on the history of Canada, and British Columbia, Vancouver and Richmond.”
He recited Humpty Dumpty adding a second verse: “Canada sat on a wall, Canada had a great fall, all the queen’s horses and queen’s men couldn’t put Canada together again.”
He paused. There was no applause.
“That’s the situation we’re in with this issue,” he said. “A lot of questions I don’t have answers to.”
However, a realtor with 30 years’ experience mostly in Richmond, Lyn Ter Borg, did have an answer — the real estate industry, along with lawyers, failed to do their job.
“I cannot describe the chaotic market we have had for the last 10 years. It’s been just an unbelievable market — we’ve watched it go like a burning wildfire throughout the Lower Mainland, desecrating neighbourhoods, tearing down perfectly good houses, rapidly building mansions that did not provide substitute housing.”
She indicted “a loophole society” hiding behind privacy and privilege, failing to hold each other accountable — especially if there was a buck to be made or big profits from flipping property to foreigners.
“We do have rules, we just don’t apply them — this is an international pickle, it is not a Vancouver pickle. But when people look away — that’s why it’s perpetrated and that’s why it is so painful and hurts all of us.”
Richmond council was not proactive, they too often look the other way, Ter Borg insisted.
“The mayor is sitting at the back looking at me, usually he’s at the front wagging his finger because I have been a thorn in his side,” she quipped.
“No, he left after the first speaker,” someone corrected her, to laughter.
She continued, eviscerating the federal agency responsible for spotting dirty money — the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre.
“Fintrac is what I call a bureaucratic nightmare of incompetence,” Ter Borg said. “It does nothing. It succeeds in doing nothing. You all know, we’ve had no convictions to speak of. It is a complete waste of money.” Indeed.
Niter, too, had a solution: more policing.
“I work in public policy, so I’m fully aware of the challenges facing this community,” she said, advocating for more dedicated federal officers and better financial regulations.
“We’ve been exploited because of weak law enforcement. … The people who are impacted are the middle class.”
There is one meeting left, in Prince George, and commissioner Austin Cullen will hold focused evidentiary hearings next year getting down to the real work.