Crown mistakenly exposed police informant, killing massive B.C. money laundering probe
A massive RCMP investigation of alleged underground bankers in Richmond, B.C., estimated to be laundering over $1 billion per year collapsed in November because federal prosecutors mistakenly exposed the identity of a police informant who they feared could have been killed if the case proceeded, Global News has learned.
The so-called E-Pirate investigation started in 2015 and targeted Richmond-based Silver International, an alleged illegal money services business. The investigation culminated in a series of undercover raids in October 2015. RCMP said they seized millions in cash, as well as B.C. Lottery Corp. casino chips, from Silver’s office in a Richmond business complex, plus computers, cellphones and digital evidence containing tens of thousands of documents from Silver’s office and other locations.
Federal prosecutors laid charges in September 2017. The allegations have not been proven in court. After lengthy preliminary proceedings in B.C. provincial court and the Supreme Court of Canada, the case was scheduled to go to trial in January 2019.
But for reasons they refused to explain, federal prosecutors and the RCMP stayed charges against Silver, and Caixuan Qin and Jian Jun Zhu, the Vancouver couple that allegedly ran the operation.
It was believed to be the largest money laundering probe in Canadian history and a crucial prosecution for B.C. that sources say has failed because of weaknesses in Canadian law enforcement, including the inadvertent disclosure of information that could have endangered a hidden informant co-operating to help the RCMP break the case.
Silver took in about $1.5 million in criminal cash deposits per day, and distributed funds to about 600 bank accounts in China, as well as using cash from Vancouver drug dealers and casino loan sharks to fund Chinese high-rollers in B.C. casinos, the RCMP investigation alleged.
Initial investigations by the RCMP estimated that Silver allegedly laundered about $500 million in two years.
But according to new information in a case study of the E-Pirate investigation by the Financial Action Task Force — an international government body that sets anti-money laundering standards — it is now estimated the alleged “professional” laundering network washed over $1 billion per year.
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