Money Laundering: "The Vancouver Model"

[Klazu]

Of course all the focus is on how this can be avoided in the future and nobody will be prosecuted for any wrongdoing in the past decade. Oh no, that would be very upsetting for people in power being held accountable. All stakeholders made a bank here, except the Regular Joe.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by red-paladin

So disheartening.

This is embarrassing.

This isn't a few million here and there.

This effectively amounts to the government aiding and abetting organised crime.

This province and its previous government made laundering money a pillar of its finances. This isn't even an exaggeration - the steps they clearly took to allow this to continue show they not only had awareness but encouraged the activity as a revenue generator.

If this is not one of the most shocking Liberal scandals Canada wide, I'm not sure what is - I feel like this is not getting enough attention for how truly diabolical it is.

Particularly since it literally feeds into the two major crisis' that are plaguing the region - housing unaffordability and fentanyl crisis.

This is insane!

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Of course all the focus is on how this can be avoided in the future and nobody will be prosecuted for any wrongdoing in the past decade. Oh no, that would be very upsetting for people in power being held accountable. All stakeholders made a bank here, except the Regular Joe.

Yes.

I don't understand how this doesn't amount to criminal negligence on the governments part?

[Vin]

Yup, and not forgetting the human-crises all these have created. Drug users are dropping like flies all over BC, with the Lower Mainland achieving the highest death rate throughout Canada. Are people here so depressed they need to do drugs to get by? Without the customer base, I don't really see how these crimes can fester. It is a West Coast social problem.

Originally Posted by rofina

Yes.

I don't understand how this doesn't amount to criminal negligence on the governments part?

Not surprising here. Too much negligence and tolerance when it comes to crime and drug use.

[SpongeG]

B.C. to probe money laundering in real estate
Future investigation to follow Phase 1 report on money laundering in casinos
By Glen Korstrom | June 28, 2018

B.C. Attorney General David Eby plans to have his ministry procure a second report on money laundering that will follow-up the bombshell study that it released yesterday.

While the first report, Dirty Money, focused on how money is laundered in the province’s casinos, the second report will focus on the real estate industry, Eby told Business in Vancouver in a phone interview on June 28.

Former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German, who wrote the 247-page first report, may be contracted to write the second report but that is not yet confirmed, Eby said. No timeline for the second report has yet been set.

...

https://biv.com/article/2018/06/bc-p...ng-real-estate

[Dengler Avenue]

Peter German be like, "STOP MAKING ME WRITE THESE REPORTS! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALREADY!"

[casper]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Peter German be like, "STOP MAKING ME WRITE THESE REPORTS! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT ALREADY!"

This government likes writting report; this issue, the tunnel, site-c, if you can write a report in place of doing something you write reports.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by casper

This government likes writting report; this issue, the tunnel, site-c, if you can write a report in place of doing something you write reports.

As opposed to the previous government who just let this go on, without even doing so much as writing a little report! Oh to go back to those days

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

As opposed to the previous government who just let this go on, without even doing so much as writing a little report! Oh to go back to those days

Is it just BC and Ontario, or is it every other province, where every single political party there is so bad that people are screwed either way?

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Is it just BC and Ontario, or is it every other province, where every single political party there is so bad that people are screwed either way?

That's in the eye of the beholder I would think!

[Dengler Avenue]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nyti...fraud.amp.html

“Donations to Liberals”

This is actually pretty damning.

[misher]

I've yet to see a single argument why money laundering is bad for us....

Smoking pot is illegal (and still is) yet its everywhere and no one touches it. Hell most people encourage it. Not that I'm against it, I just don't understand the focus on this? Maybe because its fun to stick it to rich people?

But rich people pouring money into our economy, creating jobs and taxes, thats awful!!!

Seriously if criminals from other countries want to give us money I say we go the cayman island route and take them for all their worth.

Supposedly their now taking their money to Montreal since we cracked down which means local casino workers, travel agents, people who work in the service and vacation industry, etc. are now out of the job. So we basically did nothing to hurt money launders but managed to shoot ourselves in the foot.

[Migrant_Coconut]

misher, I think you're confusing "money laundering" with "investment" or "development." I for one fail to see how it does anything except drive prices up; sucks for Montreal, but better them than us.

[misher]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

misher, I think you're confusing "money laundering" with "investment" or "development." I for one fail to see how it does anything except drive prices up; sucks for Montreal, but better them than us.

Money laundering has mostly been used in the casino context. Its much more difficult to launder money through housing. Money going into casinos, being reduced 10-20% and then coming out. That 10-20% then becomes money for local business and taxes. Plus the people coming to do it spend money on hotels, travel, food, etc. Most people buying real estate use legal money (or at least money that isn't too obviously illegal).

As for driving up prices, 64% of Vancouverites own homes. Thus 64% of us benefit from people paying higher prices for homes. I don't notice people complaining that stocks cost too much.

As an added bonus, paying more for housing leads to more taxes, jobs, etc. benefiting the economy. It also leads to developers building more housingand more rental condos for people. What drives construction is higher home prices and the high cost of construction requires a strong housing market. You'll notice just a few short years ago Vancouver closed most mental hospitals and pushed people onto the streets. Now that taxes are so much higher (close to 10x) on real estate they are now rolling in money and launching tons of programs such as modular housing. If the real estate market crashes every social program will crash too. You need to remember that we pay a percentage of the assessed value in taxes...so if that percentage goes down 10%, taxes go down 10% which means no more safe injection sites, modular housing, and bike lanes A 20% decrease will mean we are in a recession, and a 30% decrease will mean were in a depression. If we followed the policies of the unwashed masses we would be bankrupt. And again you can look at history for examples of this. Social housing was a policy pushed by the Soviets Mao was against people owning vacation homes (or any home in general).



People in Vancouver have become stuck in a communist mindset, despite history showing that communism fails. In addition, we've become really racist. We blame immigrants (we all are thinking Chinese right now) for our housing prices. But immigrants only own about 5-10% of land which means in the whole scheme of things they are insignificant. Yet so much focus is placed on them. Does this remind you of a certain red faced blonde man who targets illegal immigrants and blames them for a certain country's problems? Higher prices=more taxes+more economy+more jobs+higher wages. Why is Vancouver's unemployment one of the lowest in North America? Why has the minimum wage gone up so much? How do we afford keeping this city greener and cleaner than other cities such as Seattle and Toronto? How do we afford to build bridges and skytrains? it all comes down to a strong real estate market.

What happens when the rich either are taxes to death or move? Who will pay the taxes then? What will happen to our jobs and economy? We are shooting the golden goose by targeting the rich.


PS: This is coming from someone born here who came from nothing and works around 12 hours/day. However I do understand that taxes and bureaucracy kill the economy. Sure when I was younger...or even now I'd love to afford a house. But I also enjoy my wage being high and my rent cheap (which high supply of housing causes).

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

misher, I think you're confusing "money laundering" with "investment" or "development." I for one fail to see how it does anything except drive prices up; sucks for Montreal, but better them than us.

Read Stingrays, sorry... misher's post history and you will see why.

[misher]

Money laundering and speculation has a much lower impact on real estate prices than interest rates and other factors, if you do the math this becomes very obvious...it’s just politically correct to blame them. We’re basing our policies on what’s politically correct and we’re approaching a large budget deficit because of it. Honestly we sound similar to how Trump blames illegal immigrants and foreign nations taking advantage of America on trade deals.

Anyone who seriously believes that money launderers in casinos are causing the housing-affordability crisis is delusional. And anyone who promotes this idea at the expense of other factors is exploiting the gullibility of the public.

People in the premier's office knew it was good politics to blame speculators and the wealthy for high housing prices. That's far sexier for the media than focusing on mundane topics such as the effects of sustained low interest rates, the rate of millennial household formation, quantitative easing, immigration, interprovincial migration, and baby boomers' equity being transferred to subsequent generations.

https://www.straight.com/news/111858...using-policies

[a very long weekend]

^ Also, the crazy zoning that keeps 75% of Vancouver zoned single family detached home. When you have huge demand and severely constrained supply, you'll get huge price increase.

[svlt]

Originally Posted by a very long weekend

^ Also, the crazy zoning that keeps 75% of Vancouver zoned single family detached home. When you have huge demand and severely constrained supply, you'll get huge price increase.

Pretty much this. Foreign money laundering is objectionable and those partaking in it should be held to account in the court of law at every opportunity but to blame our real estate pricing on it is like putting out a wildfire with a lawn sprinkler.

[misher]

Originally Posted by svlt

Pretty much this. Foreign money laundering is objectionable and those partaking in it should be held to account in the court of law at every opportunity but to blame our real estate pricing on it is like putting out a wildfire with a lawn sprinkler.

Agreed, feel good policies are all well and good and score points with the masses but lower tier condo prices are actually going up according to statistics as the luxury market goes down.

What we needed was actual significant policies that would change the real estate landscape not finger pointing.

[Sheba]

Trudeau asks Blair to fight money laundering in B.C. in bid to stop organized crime

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handed new Minister Bill Blair a mandate to fight organized crime money laundering, specifically in British Columbia, in “efforts to counter guns, gangs and opioid distribution.”

The release of Blair’s mandate letter, which also includes directions for reducing gun violence, and handling irregular migration, highlights the engagement of Trudeau’s government in a crisis of money laundering connected to B.C. Lottery casinos.

In July Blair, a former Toronto chief of police, was appointed new minister of border security and organized crime reduction.

Trudeau’s mandate to Blair states: “You will be expected to work closely with provinces, territories, and municipalities, as well as community organizations, law enforcement and border agencies. This work should include a focus on cutting off money laundering which, as we have seen recently in British Columbia, supports our efforts to counter guns, gangs and opioid distribution.”

It’s not immediately clear how Blair plans to tackle B.C.’s money laundering problems. Over the past year there have been discussions within B.C.’s government about starting a money laundering task force with assistance from Ottawa, or requesting funds to increase the number of RCMP officers focused on crimes connected to money laundering.

“Anti-money laundering is primarily a federal responsibility and B.C. would welcome new federal policing investments to restore the RCMP’s federal capacity to investigate trans-national money laundering,” B.C.’s Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General stated, in response to questions from Global News.

...

Earlier this year, B.C. Attorney General David Eby testified in Ottawa, and informed senators that the unique money laundering method seen in B.C. casinos had become known internationally as the “Vancouver Model.”

This method is similar to money laundering seen in Macau casinos. Wealthy gamblers from China, sometimes including crime bosses and corrupt officials, are given suspected drug cash loans to buy chips in B.C. casinos, by loan shark networks. The so-called “whale gamblers” can pay back these loans in China, with little or no interest.

The loans are also secured by the lenders, by taking out mortgages against luxury real estate or vehicles in B.C.

Last September, Eby ordered an independent review into B.C. casino money laundering after an audit showed about $14 million in suspicious cash had flowed through Richmond’s River Rock Casino in July 2015.

Reviewer Peter German, a former RCMP executive, filed a scathing report confirming that Chinese organized crime networks with roots in Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong, laundered at least $100 million through loan sharks and VIP gamblers in B.C. Lottery casinos. German has since told Global News that the $100 million figure was likely a low estimate.