BEAUTIFUL BRITISH COLUMBIA.
Let’s break that down - it is naturally Beautiful, it is a former British colony, and it is kind of like Columbia was back in the days of Escobar et al, loads of cash - aka, Beautiful Bring Cash. I think I nailed that. Is it the beginning of the end for that alternative acronym? It could be, but I think it’s highly unlikely. I think Vancouver belies its clean, trendy, progressive and modern lifestyle as quite evidently what has been behind much of the facilitation and development of that image has been dirty money. It may well be a place that was built with dirty money, or I may well be exaggerating but it doesn’t really feel like I am. This post is a short digression, it's about feelings and it's good to share. We all have feelings and it's required for my benefit.
| In this case perhaps it wasn’t wilful blindness, maybe it was just plain old wilful kindness.
I have a few theories in regards to how this situation came to be. I’m looking at a psychological and behavioural perspective not a controls and regulation one. I'm just putting these out there;
Greed. Everyone has been making money, real estate agents, casinos, cars dealers, retailers/businesses great and small, personal trainers, masseurs, window-cleaners, especially window cleaners - but who has benefitted the most from the dirty cash flowing the veins of beautiful BC? That has to be the government. Taxes, natural resources, licenses, rent, visas, duties - but mostly taxes from an economic boom the likes of which it won’t see again. They knew things weren’t right, there was international pressure, internal turmoil, gang wars, and dirty money everywhere, but regulation and policing were often reduced and restricted. No port police in a port city with a $43 billion shipping industry, no resource to strengthen AML investigatory teams when gang crime catapulted, no realted action when Alberta created a construction regulator, and no care as to the locals being priced out of the market. Everyone knows you follow the money, but BC just let it flood in and never tried to stop it, it didn’t really need following - just investigating. Now there is outcry, reporting and inquiry - now everyone has made enough cash.
Gullibility. Maybe there was zero corruption and everyone was just enjoying the boom without ever realising that something was wrong. Maybe they did their best, and didn’t realise that Metro Vancouver was infested with crime and rotten to the core. I find that hard to believe but maybe the special advisor to a politician or two missed a key point in a report and maybe none of the politicians watched the news or read the papers or their internet was terrible so they didn’t get the required updates. Who knows? Or maybe it was that they thought it was all domestically generated funds because immigration has been so low, there was no indication of any inward capital flight or foreign cash flows. Ships are for shipping goods, why would anyone bring cash on a boat - we don’t need to waste time on that!
Geniality. The Canadian politeness and friendly nature is fantastic, it sometimes catches me off guard as I am used to the general English apathy that I so enjoy. It is possible that everyone in government, the banks, lawyers, notaries, regulators, casino managers, are all so nice that they didn’t have the heart to turn away the customers they were getting. Because as we all know, the customer is always right, right? In this case perhaps it wasn’t wilful blindness, maybe it was just plain old wilful kindness. They didn’t want to see bad in anyone, everyone deserves a chance, innocent until proven guilty and all that. That El Chapo seems like a nice fella, tips well, loves his wife and kids, and he looks after his mama.
They all start with G, because gee whiz am I confused?! I may have been a little sarcastic there, but you get the idea. Seriously it may have been a combination of all three, but that is no real consolation. What is the reason? What are the excuses? Who is responsible? How did this happen? There are a lot of unanswered questions. They have ordered an inquiry, I hope they get to the bottom of it and put some people in jail (yea, sure they will) and are able to rectify this omnishambles. I don’t believe in coincidence, there are too many oversights and conveniences for there not to have been some actual allowances, intentional oversight and corruption. Maybe I’m biased, but I just see so many glaring issues that it’s impossible not to be suspicious.
When I go into the absurd nature of it all, I get a bit worked up. And when I see things like this in report 2 - in the chapter on lawyers and notaries it actually states this, “Law enforcement cannot disregard crime committed by members of professional bodies, simply because they are professionals and their professional body can sanction behaviour. They must have the capacity and willingness to act upon criminal referrals.” Okay, just in case that wasn’t clear - to the police!!! The fact that there are such obvious statements is worrying - though the need for clarity is important - comments like the above give a good indication of where things are in beautiful BC.
I just had to get that off my chest, let the outburst occur. The thing that always bothers me and that is rarely mentioned is that often the laundered money isn’t from white collar crime or some rich person trying to avoid tax - it’s from the terrible side of us, the inhumane and cruel side of this modern world and all that we will do for money. The predicate crimes of people, arms and drug trafficking, prostitution, slavery, drug sales, scams, poaching and other horrendous acts are where this money is generated - that is what anti-money laundering is about - to make cleaning the money as difficult as possible and hopefully one day impossible.
There are victims out there because BC/Canada made it so easy, they enabled it and created a larger, more accessible market for dirty money, and that is not acceptable anywhere. Yea it happens in London, New York and Hong Kong, but these places at least try to fix it or pretend to try, and despite challenges they enforce their legislation (and make a show of it) when possible. I hope the provincial government with these latest reports and media outcry can change the acronym that I have modified to Brazenly Bring Cash back to Beautiful British Columbia, however it may take a hell of a long time until this thing is resolved so don’t hold your breath.
Al.
#moneylaundering #aml #antimoneylaundering #kyc #realestate #financialcrime #luxurycars #crime #narcos #organisedcrime #dirtymoney #thedirtstring #omnishambles
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