Feds lack of cooperation with B.C.’s money laundering inquiry ‘inexcusable’: Eby

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) — B.C.’s Attorney General is “profoundly concerned” that a delay in the province’s money laundering inquiry is partly the result of a lack of cooperation from the feds.

On Thursday, Commissioner Austin Cullen released an interim report detailing the progress of the inquiry since hearings started last October. He explained that he needs an extension of the May 15 deadline. Cullen says in a statement the broad range of the issues being addressed, the length of the hearings, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and challenges obtaining documents are all responsible for the delay.

Responding to this, David Eby said an apparent lack of cooperation from Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) is “inexcusable.”

That agency is mandated to “facilitate the detection, prevention, and deterrence of money laundering.”

My response to the Cullen Commission’s interim report, and serious concerns raised about the lack of adequate participation of the Federal anti-money laundering agency FINTRAC (see page 10 of the report).https://t.co/pabsrE2TmD

— David Eby (@Dave_Eby) December 10, 2020

Eby said if the organization can’t assist in the inquiry by granting access to information it is essentially “useless.”

FINTRAC collects mandatory and voluntary reports on “suspicious transactions, large cash transactions, electronic funds transfers and casino disbursements” from across the country.

“Is another illustration of, frankly, how useless this organization is in practice. Everyone spends all of this time collecting this information for FINTRAC and then it never gets shared anywhere, it doesn’t get used,” Eby said.

“The whole point of collecting this information about large cash transactions, and patterns and involvement of individuals in our province by this federal agency is so that we can make good policy and we can act on that information. The fact that it’s being kept from the commission in my mind is inexcusable. Frankly, we will not be able to understand the scope of the problem in our province unless this agency steps up in a big way.”

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Eby also said Federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair shares his frustration and committed to doing what he can to facilitate cooperation.

“It at least gave me some encouragement that we have an ally in Ottawa,” Eby said.

Ultimately, Eby said a lack of cooperation from FINTRAC is not what the inquiry is concerned with which is why he is particularly frustrated at the delay.

“I hope the commissioner gets the cooperation he needs from FINTRAC because we don’t want to do an inquiry into FINTRAC. We want to do an inquiry into money laundering and the criminals that are using our economy to launder the proceeds of their crime and the misery they cause.”

Read the full report here.