The B.C. Cullen Commission details the overlapping failures of government and law enforcement that led to a decade of unchecked snow washing
While the public inquiry focused on B.C. –– a province where criminals were all but free to habitually wash hockey bags full of dirty cash through their casinos and McMansions for unemployed students –– its findings and recommendations are relevant across the country. Money laundering is so prevalent in the Great White North, it’s internationally known as “snow washing.”
Worse, some defanged the few tools we had to fight back against organized crime. The commission found that a “pivotal moment” occurred in 2012 when Stephen Harper’s federal government made significant budget cuts to government services and disbanded the RCMP’s Integrated Proceeds of Crime units. The feds abandoned the file so badly, the Cullen Commission recommends B.C. doesn’t wait around for them and, instead, set up its own dedicated money laundering intelligence and enforcement unit.
According to the report, a key part of this will be ensuring real estate agents are aware of and comply with their federal anti-money laundering regulations. It reads, “FINTRAC reporting by real estate licensees is virtually non-existent and is nowhere near commensurate with the level of money laundering risk in the sector. For example, in 2015–16, real estate licensees in British Columbia submitted a total of seven suspicious transaction reports to FINTRAC.
As for banks, the commission recommends the federal government introduce a “safe harbour provision,” which would allow them to share information about potential money laundering between themselves without exposure to liability.
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