Pair wants millions seized in RCMP probe returned
Stay in money-laundering case means cash should no longer be held, lawyer says
Days after charges were stayed in the province’s largest-ever money-laundering case, a lawyer for the formerly accused people was in B.C. Supreme Court trying to get millions of dollars seized by police returned to the pair.
The hearing was held Nov. 27 before Justice Heather Holmes.
Postmedia did not attend the proceeding, but listened to a recording of the 42-minute session at the Vancouver Law Courts on Friday.
Lawyer Matthew Nathanson filed an application on Nov. 26 for the return of more than $2 million seized during an RCMP investigation dubbed E-Pirate.
The cash was found in the home of Caixuan Qin and Jain Jun Zhu, as well as at the Richmond offices of Silver International Investments, of which Qin is director.
Until Nov. 22, Qin, Zhu and Silver International had been charged with laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime, and failing to ascertain the identity of a client.
Police alleged the company had laundered hundreds of millions of dollars and was linked to drug money.
No details of why the charges were stayed were disclosed at Tuesday’s hearing.
Nathanson told Holmes that his clients’ Charter rights were violated by police when they conducted the searches and that their money, as well as the contents of two safety deposit boxes, should be returned immediately.
Federal prosecutor Gerry Sair argued that normally items seized during investigations are returned within 30 days after a case has concluded under a provision of the criminal code. He also said he wasn’t in a position to respond to Nathanson’s Charter application because he received notice of it only the previous day.
Sair said that the 30-day period is in effect because it takes time to process the money seized and arrange for it to be returned.
“There are property management orders in place and it takes a little bit of time to go through the motion of actually releasing it and returning the funds to the applicants or their accounts,” he said.
Sair also said the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office is reviewing its file in the E-Pirate case.
“In my view, that is irrelevant to this matter. But it’s possible within a 30-day period of time, they may make an application to somehow restrain the money,” Sair said.
Earlier this year, almost $1 million was forfeited to the director of civil forfeiture that was seized in August 2015 from two men who police earlier saw entering Silver International’s office with suitcases.
Silver said in court filings that it had no interest in that cash.
Sair also said holding onto property for “a few days” after charges are stayed would not constitute a breach of someone’s Charter rights.
Nathanson said it would be unfair to his clients if their money was not returned immediately and then became the subject of a civil forfeiture application, tying it up even longer.
“The position of the applicants is as of right now, further retention is unlawful,” he told Holmes.
Sair noted that some of the items seized were illegal and should not be returned.
“They include rifle cartridges, a credit-card skimmer ... and white powder,” he said.
Holmes agreed to issue an order for the return of the cash and safety deposit box items within the 30-day limit, but also agreed to hear Nathanson’s Charter application for an even faster return of the items when the case returns to court on Dec. 12.
Holmes also said that if a civil forfeiture challenge is brought, Nathanson still could argue his position “that the original seizure was unlawful.”
Nathanson said that while he believes the initial seizure was illegal, “my position at this moment is regardless of that issue, the continued detention now is unlawful.”
Reached by phone Thursday, Nathanson declined to comment on the current application before the courts, or the stay.
The Public Prosecution Service of Canada would only confirm that the charges were stayed, but would not say why.
B.C. Attorney General David Eby expressed concern about the stay and said he would ask for more information from the RCMP and the federal Crown about what went wrong with the years-long investigation.
Postmedia earlier obtained RCMP and B.C. government documents that alleged organized criminals used Silver as an illegal bank to wash drug money through Metro Vancouver casinos.