Province seeks $75,000 seized at casino
Lawsuit claims chips taken from alleged money launderer used for ‘unlawful activity’
The director of civil forfeiture has filed suit against an alleged international money launderer to get casino chips seized from him forfeited to the B.C. government.
The lawsuit targeting $75,000 worth of chips taken from Dan Bai Shun Jin last month was filed June 13, according to documents obtained by Postmedia News.
The RCMP arrested Jin at River Rock Casino in Richmond on May 25, a day after the Canada Border Services Agency detained a woman arriving at Vancouver International Airport with US$20,000 allegedly intended for Jin.
The government suit says CBSA agents "determined Mr. Jin was the subject of an arrest warrant issued from the state of Nevada … regarding an alleged $1.4 million US fraud.”
Jin, also known as Dan Bui Shin Jin, was in possession of the chip, as well as $805 in U.S. cash, the suit says.
Police searched Jin’s room at the River Rock on May 26 and found “documents relating to crime proceedings involving Mr. Jin in Australia” and “documents associating Mr. Jin to the importation of $20,000 US into Canada.”
The director claims Jin’s “casino chips and money are proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity.”
The casino chips and money “have been used by Mr. Jin to engage in unlawful activities which variously resulted in, or were likely to result in, the acquisition of property, or interest in property, or cause, or were likely to cause serious bodily harm,” the suit alleges.
Jin’s crimes include money laundering, possession of proceeds of crime and failure to pay income tax, the court documents allege.
“Mr. Jin did not have sufficient legitimate income to have acquired the casino chips and money.”
Jin, who was being held in immigration detention pending his deportation, has not filed a response to the civil forfeiture suit. The RCMP earlier released some details of the joint investigation into the 55-year-old Australian, saying the combined efforts “prevented an alleged international money launderer from using B.C. casinos as a conduit for illicit transactions.”
Postmedia attended Jin’s immigration hearing last month, where an adjudicator found he was inadmissible to Canada because of the outstanding U.S. charges.
Canadian authorities were also concerned about multiple investigations in several countries, including Australia and the U.S. Australian court documents say Jin is likely to be involved in large-scale, illegal, casino-based money laundering in Australia, the U.S., Macau and Singapore. Part of the Australian probe revolves around Jin gambling about $850 million at a Melbourne casino between 2005 and 2013.
On Wednesday, the B.C. government will release a 250-page report on money laundering in B.C. casinos. The report is expected to contain 45 recommendations on how to deal with the problem of criminals misusing the gambling operation to clean their illicit cash.