Price Tags: The Georgia Straight helpfully provided the full text of Attorney-General David Eby’s speech: “Housing and trans-national money laundering: an update on what I’ve been doing as AG to address the housing crisis in BC”.
Here are some highlights:
.
.
It is clear, in my opinion, that the previous administration was aware we had a serious and growing reputational issue. It is also clear to me that they evaluated the costs of cracking down on white collar crime, on fraud, on money laundering, and determined that the benefits of inaction outweighed the costs of action. …It is hard for me not to speculate that some may gone further and seen a lax approach to money laundering, fraud, corporate transparency, land title registry transparency, as a competitive advantage, or a budgetary advantage, for the province.
But, of course, nobody wrote this down. I’m just speculating.
If anyone did see a lax approach to white collar crime, tax evasion and money laundering as a net benefit to B.C., they were dead wrong. The chickens have now come home to roost, and our international reputation is on the line.
I do not make this assessment lightly. …
I was sat down by members of B.C.’s Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch. One of the members of the public service said, “Get ready. I think we are going to blow your mind.”
He was right. …
In response to this startling report from the police about the need to increase enforcement, the Province of B.C., under the oversight of then minister Responsible Rich Coleman, defunded the policing team, shutting it down. …
This was not the first report received by the then finance minister on the problem, there were countless red flags from regulators, just the most explicit. It is important to note that this same period was a period of exceptional growth in the province’s gaming revenues.
Although the activity behind the scenes in government was remarkable, in the legislature, you would never have guessed there was a problem.
A month after receiving that report about the significant increase in the legitimization of proceeds of crime through B.C.’s gaming facilities, the former finance minister (Mike de Jong) told the legislature, on April 4, 2016, quote “I can tell you this. We take very seriously the obligation that we have to British Columbians to ensure that the activities that take place within regulated and lawful gaming establishments are being conducted with proceeds that are not—I repeat not—the result of criminal activity.” …
The previous administration’s lax attitude towards this issue means British Columbia has apparently developed its own, internationally recognized, model of money laundering.
This has a major and serious consequence for our international reputation, and also for the encouragement of whatever illegal activity might be generating these proceeds of crime. …
Why criminal organizations might consider locating in B.C.
…. with fewer than two percent of penalties and fines collected, and limited criminal charges going ahead, the message is obvious to those who might wish to participate in white collar crime.
You’ll have a better chance to get away with it in B.C.
… A final and more notorious benefit to an individual or corporation seeking to avoid the law and accountability in British Columbia is the fact that you can put your money into housing here without having to give up your name or identity.
There is a growing outrage among people in the lower mainland that their housing market has transitioned from one that is rationally connected to local incomes, to one that has no connection to local wages. …
The question that flows from this economic reality is quite simple. Where is the money coming from? …
Others have pointed out that for luxury and commercial properties, transfer taxes are avoided through a non-transparent transfer of trust benefit rather than a sale of the property itself. Such a transfer results in no change in ownership being registered in the public registry. …
But the previous administration was well aware of these issues. … And the consequences of not acting are very apparent now.
- Our own internationally recognized model of money laundering.
- Articles in the New York Times outlining a cozy and opaque tax break program exploited by an alleged transnational criminal organization,
Read more »