Money Laundering: "The Vancouver Model"

[whatnext]

Wow, I guess you truly are a world class city when you have a method of money laundering named after you! One can only wonder how long the BC Liberals turned a blind eye to this.

...In his speech, Eby said he will never forget the first briefing he received from members of B.C.’s gaming enforcement branch when he became attorney general last summer.

“One of the members of the public service said, ‘Get ready. I think we are going to blow your mind.’ While I cannot share all of the details, I can advise you that the briefing outlined for me allegations of serious, large-scale, transnational laundering of the proceeds of crime in British Columbia casinos,” Eby said. “And I was advised that the particular style of money laundering in B.C. related to B.C. casinos is being called, quote, ‘the Vancouver model’ in at least one international intelligence community.”...

...Eby suggested that a “lax attitude” towards regulation of B.C. casinos, during a period when the previous government had enjoyed “massive increases in provincial gambling revenue,” seems to have contributed to the problems today in B.C.’s gambling system.

Eby pointed specifically to a decision by the B.C. Liberal government to cancel funding of a police unit that tackled illegal gambling, after the unit identified concerns with organized crime influence in B.C. casinos and proposed changes “to improve the ability of the existing policing team in identifying and prosecuting offenders.”...

...Eby also said that he believes B.C.’s property ownership system — in which true owners of property can hide behind opaque legal mechanisms — could be attracting foreign criminals and corrupt officials seeking to hide wealth in the province. Eby said Finance Minister Carole James is working on reforms to pull back legal veils that cover true ownership of property and corporations.

Eby pointed to a 2016 study by Transparency International that showed real estate buyers in B.C. are using shell companies, trusts and nominee buyers to hide their beneficial interest in property....

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-n...y-general-says

[whatnext]

No comments? I guess nobody is shocked then.

An older story about clients' real estate deposits pilfered from a Richmond lawyer now ties into this after a new conference yesterday:

Richmond real estate lawyer Hong Guo says Chinese police have charged two of her former employees in connection to the disappearance of about $7.5 million that Guo alleges was stolen from her firm’s trust account, laundered through B.C. Lottery Corp. casino accounts, and transferred to China in the form of casino chips.

At a press conference Monday, Guo claimed that through her own investigations in B.C. and China, she has forwarded sufficient evidence to Chinese police authorities in order to secure charges against her former employees.

Guo claimed that through court actions, she has obtained B.C. casino transaction records to support her case.

Postmedia News has reported extensively on Guo’s case since late 2016. However, Guo’s allegation that suspects exploited weaknesses in B.C. Lottery Corp. accounts in order to launder funds stolen in Richmond and to transfer the criminal proceeds to China, will receive heightened scrutiny in the midst of an independent review into allegations of transnational money laundering in B.C. casinos. The first recommendations of Attorney-General David Eby’s reviewer Peter German will be released Tuesday...

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-n...ugh-b-c-casino

[rofina]

I think everyone should be appalled at the level of corruption going on here.

I genuinely feel that people do not have a firm understanding of what the Liberals have allowed to happen to this province.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by rofina

I think everyone should be appalled at the level of corruption going on here.

I genuinely feel that people do not have a firm understanding of what the Liberals have allowed to happen to this province.

It certainly gives the NDP a very big stick to beat the BC Liberals with. Particularly since one of the leadership candidates was finance minister during the time in question.

This really touches almost every residential project discussed here (what's funding them) and drags them into the fentanyl crisis and a host of other societal ills.

The Money Laundering Scam That Turns Drug Cash into Real Estate

If you've read a headline about Metro Vancouver recently, chances are it was about drug overdose deaths or super-inflated housing costs. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl continue to kill an unprecedented number of people, and speculation in the real estate market has inflated housing costs beyond reason.

These two issues have been plaguing our community for years, and with more than 1,000 overdose deaths so far this year and an average one bedroom renting for more than $2,000 a month, they're not going away anytime soon. As a reporter, I've stopped many times to think about how the two catastrophes are related—how they may somehow make each other worse.

Nobody has drawn a more direct and surprising line between them than Postmedia reporter Sam Cooper. He's spent the better part of two years on an investigative series uncovering the way organized crime groups use casinos to launder drug money and invest in lucrative Lower Mainland property(bold mine)...

https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/p...to-real-estate

[Doug]

Originally Posted by rofina

I think everyone should be appalled at the level of corruption going on here.

I genuinely feel that people do not have a firm understanding of what the Liberals have allowed to happen to this province.

And the current government will be no different. Many people are living off of housing appreciation which covers up overall economic weakness brought on by excessive regulation (ex. over the top environmentalism, restrictive land use, high taxes).

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by Doug

And the current government will be no different. Many people are living off of housing appreciation which covers up overall economic weakness brought on by excessive regulation (ex. over the top environmentalism, restrictive land use, high taxes).

Incomes have been stagnant for years, under both Conservative and Liberal governments, it is incorrect to try and pin it on environmentalism or anything specifically done by the current government. You are correct that both Tories and Liberals were content to allow house price inflation to cover up wage growth weakness.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Incomes have been stagnant for years, under both Conservative and Liberal governments, it is incorrect to try and pin it on environmentalism or anything specifically done by the current government. You are correct that both Tories and Liberals were content to allow house price inflation to cover up wage growth weakness.

I'm pinning it on governments going back decades, pretty much all that came after Bennett (although Campbell was so we at better). BC is extremely unfriendly to business investment.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by rofina

I think everyone should be appalled at the level of corruption going on here.

I genuinely feel that people do not have a firm understanding of what the Liberals have allowed to happen to this province.

I think you are right, and I think it's apalling. Case closed.

[CanSpice]

n/m

[djmk]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

I think you are right, and I think it's apalling. Case closed.

The article does say that the amount of cash has decreased since 2015 from "increased enforcement".

[retro_orange]

Oh I am. I just don't know what to say anymore.

I say ban foreign ownership for 5 years as a test period. If it is not foreign investment like developers want you to believe then there should be no effect to their business. If it does and causes a crash then we will know who to blame and we must hold them accountable.

I say that there should be a clause in all mortgages that states if it has been found the developer falsified the value of the suite then the remaining value of the mortgage should be paid by the developer if the value of the suite crashes within 10 years of purchase.

We are not talking about a car here.

[Cypherus]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

Oh I am. I just don't know what to say anymore.

I say ban foreign ownership for 5 years as a test period. If it is not foreign investment like developers want you to believe then there should be no effect to their business. If it does and causes a crash then we will know who to blame and we must hold them accountable.

I say that there should be a clause in all mortgages that states if it has been found the developer falsified the value of the suite then the remaining value of the mortgage should be paid by the developer if the value of the suite crashes within 10 years of purchase.

We are not talking about a car here.

Foreign ownership? You're buying into false mainstream media narrative. No, it's always been permanent residents who use "foreign capital" to buy up real estate. This means that, for example, a Chinese student attending UBC (and featured on Global News), can buy a $20 million plus property near Jericho Beach with CIBC lending a 7 million mortgage to cover the shortfall. He is a permanent resident, but the money comes from his corporate executive parents in China. No, foreign ownership of the house is never registered, but in the name of, for example, Mr. Ling instead - 21 year old student of UCB wanting to become dentist. The money comes from overseas registered in the name of a Permanent resident in Canada. It protects the family wealth from Communist China authorities at the cost of affordability of Canadian residents, while saving on foreign buyers tax too. The condo and housing market of Vancouver can forever go up based on this reality. It has been since 1991. Get it?

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Foreign ownership? You're buying into false mainstream media narrative. No, it's always been permanent residents who use "foreign capital" to buy up real estate. This means that, for example, a Chinese student attending UBC (and featured on Global News), can buy a $20 million plus property near Jericho Beach with CIBC lending a 7 million mortgage to cover the shortfall. He is a permanent resident, but the money comes from his corporate executive parents in China. No, foreign ownership of the house is never registered, but in the name of, for example, Mr. Ling instead - 21 year old student of UCB wanting to become dentist. The money comes from overseas registered in the name of a Permanent resident in Canada. It protects the family wealth from Communist China authorities at the cost of affordability of Canadian residents, while saving on foreign buyers tax too. The condo and housing market of Vancouver can forever go up based on this reality. It has been since 1991. Get it?

Well, sort of. As per the BC Government's official records there is still hundreds of millions of dollars of RE being purchased by "foreigners". Even after the 15% tax.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Foreign ownership? You're buying into false mainstream media narrative. No, it's always been permanent residents who use "foreign capital" to buy up real estate. This means that, for example, a Chinese student attending UBC (and featured on Global News), can buy a $20 million plus property near Jericho Beach with CIBC lending a 7 million mortgage to cover the shortfall. He is a permanent resident, but the money comes from his corporate executive parents in China. No, foreign ownership of the house is never registered, but in the name of, for example, Mr. Ling instead - 21 year old student of UCB wanting to become dentist. The money comes from overseas registered in the name of a Permanent resident in Canada. It protects the family wealth from Communist China authorities at the cost of affordability of Canadian residents, while saving on foreign buyers tax too. The condo and housing market of Vancouver can forever go up based on this reality. It has been since 1991. Get it?

The UBC student has to live somewhere. Why not a $20 M house if his parents can afford it.

In Saskatoon (a university town), it was not uncommon to have townhouses owned by the parents of university students (or the student him/herself). The parents look at how much they or their kids would spend on rent to go university for 4-5 years and decide to do 20% down and pay a mortgage instead.

How is that different or bad?

If I had kids would I spoil them with a $20M home. Probably not, but others have different values.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by casper

The UBC student has to live somewhere. Why not a $20 M house if his parents can afford it.

In Saskatoon (a university town), it was not uncommon to have townhouses owned by the parents of university students (or the student him/herself). The parents look at how much they or their kids would spend on rent to go university for 4-5 years and decide to do 20% down and pay a mortgage instead.

How is that different or bad?

If I had kids would I spoil them with a $20M home. Probably not, but others have different values.

I agree to a point - its the same reason many Canadians own properties in Florida, or Arizona.

Which is why its easy to say this is a failure in zoning and leadership.

The city should have been made much, much more dense with additional options for housing the local population.

The issue is that supply WAS the issue, a decade ago when it made sense to use land for lower density solutions - row homes, town homes etc.

The issue with supply NOW is that it nearly always has to be high rise to make a decent business case taking land costs and building costs into consideration.

This guarantees there will never be "affordability" again when 2 of the largest hard costs are already at $1000 sq/ft in parts of Van - forget profit, etc.

These types of costs guarantee that family sized units are forever going to be at or over a million dollars. Absurd.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by Cypherus

Foreign ownership? You're buying into false mainstream media narrative. No, it's always been permanent residents who use "foreign capital" to buy up real estate. This means that, for example, a Chinese student attending UBC (and featured on Global News), can buy a $20 million plus property near Jericho Beach with CIBC lending a 7 million mortgage to cover the shortfall. He is a permanent resident, but the money comes from his corporate executive parents in China. No, foreign ownership of the house is never registered, but in the name of, for example, Mr. Ling instead - 21 year old student of UCB wanting to become dentist. The money comes from overseas registered in the name of a Permanent resident in Canada. It protects the family wealth from Communist China authorities at the cost of affordability of Canadian residents, while saving on foreign buyers tax too. The condo and housing market of Vancouver can forever go up based on this reality. It has been since 1991. Get it?

I think this happened since the 1700s, with the wealth of the old world, namely France and England, financing the "properties of the colonies", driving up land price up so much when they used to be free for the aboriginals. Sounds familiar?

This trend merely continues when wealth shifts from one part of the world to the other. Now you guys finally realized how the native people felt back then huh? Well, at least you are not thrown into resident schools, and better still, get to make a profit from this new wealth coming in.

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Vin

I think this happened since the 1700s, with the wealth of the old world, namely France and England, financing the "properties of the colonies", driving up land price up so much when they used to be free for the aboriginals. Sounds familiar?

This trend merely continues when wealth shifts from one part of the world to the other. Now you guys finally realized how the native people felt back then huh? Well, at least you are not thrown into resident schools, and better still, get to make a profit from this new wealth coming in.

What an idiot.

Very few people have benefited, far more have been shut out. Inequality has been steadily rising in this country, in tandem with increasing amounts of foreign capital coming into Canada in the past 10-15 years.

Repeating ignorance of the past is just stupid. Canadians of Chinese descent whose families came here as recently as the 70's and 80's have been shut out and are outraged just the same as who you assume are dumb white people making these comments on here.

[Vin]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

What an idiot.

Very few people have benefited, far more have been shut out. Inequality has been steadily rising in this country, in tandem with increasing amounts of foreign capital coming into Canada in the past 10-15 years.

Repeating ignorance of the past is just stupid. Canadians of Chinese descent whose families came here as recently as the 70's and 80's have been shut out and are outraged just the same as who you assume are dumb white people making these comments on here.

Touched a nerve there, haven't I?

You have to look into who gets to gain in the first place. They are the ones in power. So what changed? Call me an idiot all you want, it just doesn't change the fact. And did I say I agree with this system? I was merely correcting the previous posting that such a trend only started from the 80s or 90s.

Originally Posted by rofina

I hope you realize the absurdity of this logic.

Having the benefit of history only makes the current errors all the more damaging.

Yup, absurd unless you stand to gain lots.

[Tourist9394]

Originally Posted by retro_orange

What an idiot.

Very few people have benefited, far more have been shut out. Inequality has been steadily rising in this country, in tandem with increasing amounts of foreign capital coming into Canada in the past 10-15 years.

Repeating ignorance of the past is just stupid. Canadians of Chinese descent whose families came here as recently as the 70's and 80's have been shut out and are outraged just the same as who you assume are dumb white people making these comments on here.

Canadians of Chinese descent or Canadians of Europeans descent can benefit from this if they didn't listen to the media narrative regarding housing price. If they didn't sell their land to developers, they would have gained much.

I don't understand why Canadians think foreign capital is bad, economy is booming with many immigrants consuming and paying sales tax and property tax.

[rofina]

Originally Posted by Vin

I think this happened since the 1700s, with the wealth of the old world, namely France and England, financing the "properties of the colonies", driving up land price up so much when they used to be free for the aboriginals. Sounds familiar?

This trend merely continues when wealth shifts from one part of the world to the other. Now you guys finally realized how the native people felt back then huh? Well, at least you are not thrown into resident schools, and better still, get to make a profit from this new wealth coming in.

I hope you realize the absurdity of this logic.

Having the benefit of history only makes the current errors all the more damaging.