Hello money laundering junkies and financial crime enthusiasts, before I get into it any proper posts, I just wanted to set the scene. It's May 2019, a sunny afternoon in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This idyllic west coast town busy and vibrant, set to and surrounded by natures tune with mountains on the northern horizon and the sea to the west, forests and lakes and all that green goodness. It's a fantastic place to live, do stuff and chill out. Unfortunately I'm just visiting, it's been 2 weeks so far and it's been expensive, inspiring and interesting. The same as last time, I was here for 2 months in 2016, it was great then too. Back then though I was quite busy enjoying the chill, the lifestyle and getting away from work, and I failed to take note of what was happening in the background, the rustle of money, that dirty cash money that seems to be ever-present in all corners of the world, especially the pretty ones. The key AML points in this lovely yet troubled town are casino gaming and the real estate/luxury markets, it’s a classic case of the good, the bad and the dirty.
This pretty but complex picture interests me indubitably, as I have previously worked on the front line in casino surveillance/compliance and recently in a number of financial institutions covered AML, KYC, and Sanctions. It’s a hot topic over here and while I was aware of the situation, I wasn’t that interested in it, but being here got me to pay attention, read into it, and understanding the problems made me want to dig deeper. I’m (un)fortunate to have an understanding of the internal workings and requirements of a casino AML/compliance ops and financial system AML controls like transaction monitoring and due diligence.
Anyway, the hills of Vancouver are alive with the sound of money. It’s just a booming economy, funds flowing back and forth, supply and demand and all of that, but it’s the source of funds satisfying the demand of the supply (does that make sense) that has created interest and sporadic uproar, the routes taken by said funds that end up in luxury real estate have raised some Canadian eyebrows. It’s always lingering in the background and often in the foreground (as per todays Starmetro below), in march 2018 a Casino/Gaming focused money laundering report was released to huge effect (link below), noting the extent of casinos as facilitators of potentially illicit funds, the lack of and barriers to enforcement, and various recommendations on improvement. A second report focusing on real estate and luxury cars is on the way, a snippet of which was released earlier this week.
The reports are harsh, no-nonsense stuff, though there is a fair bit of nonsense in what has actually been going on over the last decade. But we know it’s not just Vancouver, as is so often the case around the world, the regulation is there but the budget isn’t, the enforcement isn’t and the bureaucracy is stifling. I’d like to say it’s shocking, most of it isn’t but actually some of it is, specifically the operational and oversight blunders in the casinos. So over the next couple of weeks I’ll be sticking my nose in, and taking a big whiff of what’s been festering in Vancouvers Moneyland sewers - stay tuned.
Al.
DIRTY MONEY, An Independent Review of Money Laundering in Lower Mainland Casinos conducted for the Attorney General of British Columbia - https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/Gaming_Final_Report.pdf
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