Surrey businessman accused of laundering cash for cartels
Owner of money exchange allegedly helped courier illegal funds
A Surrey businessman who owns a money exchange is wanted in the U.S. for allegedly laundering money for international drug traffickers, including the notorious Sinaloa cartel.
A lawyer for Surrey's Bakshish Sidhu, president of Basant Forex Ltd., said Friday that his client only learned of the charges against him a week ago, despite an indictment naming Sidhu that was filed in California in 2015.
Deepak Chodha said he is in the process of finding a U.S. lawyer for Sidhu, who is currently featured on the Most Wanted List of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“As far as Mr. Sidhu is concerned, he is not making any statement,” Chodha said.
The 36-page indictment named 22 people allegedly involved in a “hawala” form of money laundering back in 2012. Several have been convicted in recent years, including the leader of the conspiracy, Gurkaran Singh Isshpunani, of Ontario. He was sentenced to 18 months.
The indictment said that a hawala operation uses brokers who are typically located in separate countries and who transfer “monetary value” between each other based on trust and history without “promissory instruments or any legally binding features.”
“Often, a given hawala network consists of many brokers operating in several countries around the world in which all brokers are in contact with each other and money movements can occur in a variety of directions from one country to another,” the indictment said. “Drug traffickers in Canada would generate drug proceeds from multi-kilogram and multi-pound sales and distributions of drugs provided by Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa Cartel.”
The Canadian traffickers coordinated money transfers to their counterparts in Mexico by instructing Isshpunani and other hawaladars in Canada to deliver specified amounts of money to couriers in the U.S. who were working on behalf of the cartels, the indictment said.
“The Canadian-based hawaladars, once in possession of the drug traffickers' bulk Canadian currency, would contact U.S.-based hawaladars and authorize the release of the equivalent amounts of U.S. currency to the couriers operating in the Los Angeles area.”
In the indictment, Sidhu is linked to large transfers of cash allegedly made in 2012. It says that the Surrey man, who was born in 1970, arranged for the transfer of $522,000 on March 20 of that year.
In the days before the transaction, Sidhu spoke repeatedly to a contact in California named Ramesh Singh, “using coded language in a telephone conversation,” the indictment said.
He wanted to make sure Singh “would have $500,000 available to distribute in Los Angeles to meet a pending order.”
Sidhu called back to say the drug trafficker and his organization had increased the order to $1 million, the indictment said.
On the morning of the delivery, Singh loaded his car with two cardboard boxes — one marked “Bud Light” and the other “Diet Coke” — “that together contained $522,000 and departed for the scheduled meeting with the courier,” the indictment said.
He got a confirmation call from Sidhu later that day saying the first instalment had been delivered.
The next day, Sidhu allegedly spoke to Singh again to discuss the transfer of another $600,000.
On July 9, 2012, Sidhu called Singh and discussed “the use of code-names instead of defendant Sidhu's real name as a precautionary measure and make arrangements for an upcoming delivery of $1 million in Los Angeles, California,” the indictment said.