Dirty secrets from Canada's casino industry are finally being spilled
Stories of outrageous money laundering, of suspected crime money coming into government-run
casinos, hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, most of it in twenty dollar bills
night after night, by high rollers connected to gangsters. And no one did much about it
The Mob Reporter here with news of how the casinos on Canada's west coast were
being used and abused by organized crime for years, and how it is finally being exposed
Let me tell you about it
The province of British Columbia on Canada's beautiful west coast is in
the midst of a reckoning, facing how it allowed its popular casinos to fall under the spell of
transnational organized crime, particularly at the destination casinos around metro Vancouver
It was so successful in moving money that the way it was done became known around the world
as the "Vancouver Model." Much of it, according to allegations, involved this man: Paul King Jin. But
we'll come back to him in a moment. First the money; hundreds of millions of dollars in questionable
money was being pushed through cashier slots at B.C.'s casinos. What you see here is actual video of
some of those transactions. Patrons walking in with plastic bags, suitcases, and grocery bags filled
with bands on bands on bands — wads of stacked cash, bricks of bills, held together by elastic bands
The money was hardly ever refused. One former head of security said if a customer had identification
he could only think of a couple of times the cash was turned away — once when it was covered in blood
another when it was partially burned. Links between the suspicious money and Asian organized crime was
clear by 2008. How bad was it? One head of casino security investigations said his team couldn't do
much to stop the patrons, investigate them, or even ask them where the cash was coming from, because
the gangs were too strong and confronting them too dangerous. Here it is, in his words: "You couldn't ask
the service provider to give notice to one of your investigators with a large amount of cash
comes in the door, let us know so we can come in and interview the person? That's beyond your
capabilities as as special constables?" "Yes, because they are associated with organized crime and we
don't have the capacity to investigate organized crime or any of the other protections we have."
"But you could go in and speak to the people." "Patrons often had someone with them
and, again, nearby there was usually somebody that was that was there just to watch over." The use of
government licensed casinos for money laundering is currently under public scrutiny. A commission
of inquiry is underway. It is known as the Cullen Commission, named after its commissioner Austin
Cullen, a B.C. Supreme Court justice. A major theme that's emerged is the innovative use of casinos to
meet the needs of two groups, both of which have a money movement problem. First there were the
drug gangs and crime groups in Canada, choking on the cash flowing in from their activities
They need to find a way to launder it, meaning to metaphorically clean it up so it looks like
money earned through legitimate means that can be invested without triggering police investigations
or government asset seizures. The second group were foreign high rollers, usually visiting wealthy
Chinese citizens who love to gamble in Vancouver but couldn't bring their money with them, after
China imposed money export rules to stem the tidal wave of capital flight. In the casino industry
they call these compulsive gamblers "whales" and casinos want whales more than I want your clicks
This is how the Vancouver method worked: A patron is waiting outside a casino for men who are
identified as members of a criminal organization. A gangster arrives with two plastic bags full of
cash and the two go into a restaurant beside the casino to try to avoid the casino security cameras
The bags of cash change hands quickly
And as the gangster drives away, the patron now carrying the bags walks into the casino
He strolls through the gaming floor to the VIP cashiers and plops them on the counter
to exchange them for casino chips. Here's the top-down view from the casino's cash cage
Each of these bundles is about twenty thousand dollars most are twenty dollar bills some are
fifties so there's 200,000 dollars here. Here's a second transaction. This guy
also collects bags from someone he met outside, or perhaps in a washroom where there aren't cameras
The cash cage view of this transaction shows it's much larger, with more fifty dollar bills
And a third one, this reusable shopping bag, gets dumped out on the counter by the cashier
Under a newspaper cover out tumbles half a million bucks
And finally, here's a million dollar transaction. Two men carrying two bags — and they look heavy
And this happened over and over, almost each day, for years. The scheme shows the ingenuity
and global reach of the gangsters. Casinos at first threw up their arms and said it can't be
money laundering because these whales are losing most of their money during their gambling binges
They're walking out of there with almost nothing, not with clean checks that can be deposited into
a bank, which is the usual endgame in the laundering service.What was really happening was something
more sophisticated. The gamblers — the ones going into the casino with the bags of cash — weren't
really there to launder the cash, they just wanted to play. But for those coming from cash-restrictive
countries such as China or Iran, they can't bring suitcases of their own cash, like they used to
So they pick up the cash in Vancouver. They first must pay for it by moving the money from their
bank account in China to another account within China, one that's controlled by the gangsters in
Canada or by their associates. Once the gangsters in Vancouver get word that the money has arrive in
China, they give the patron the equivalent amount in Canadian cash, which is allegedly the proceeds
of their own crime. The money in essence moves between countries without ever crossing a border
The Cullen Commission has heard allegations that much of the money was linked to Paul King Jin
The 51-year-old Jin is described as a well-known loan shark. He is suspected of
deep ties to gambling and to the running of an underground bank — the kind of underground
bank used to facilitate the Vancouver method of money laundering. Jin is a former championship
boxer from China, according to reporting by my friends and colleagues at the Vancouver Sun
He immigrated to Canada in 1989, living first in Montreal then in Toronto, before
settling on the west coast. He opened a spa and later a large gym, fitness and boxing club
He became a Canadian citizen a few years after arriving here. Police found more than four
million dollars cash in a safe in his apartment in 2015, and he once told an officer "My name is money."
Jin seemed concerned about what might be said about him at the Cullen Commission, so much so
he asked for standing so his lawyer could be involved during the inquiry process. Jin seems
to have more to worry about than the testimony. In September 2020, just before live testimony at
the Cullen commission was set to focus on casino cash, Jin was shot at in what was called a targeted
attack at a japanese restaurant in Richmond, BC. Jin survived, but a man he was with, described
as his associate involved in money laundering, died. That man ran a massive underground bank that faced
prosecution in a massive money laundering probe, called Project E-Pirate, but the case collapsed in
2019 before being prosecuted in court. The bank had ties to China, Mexico, and Colombia. Jin still faces
civil forfeiture actions by the province, targeting his gym. He has denied the allegations against him
After weeks of testimony on the casinos, a picture emerges of gaping holes in
regulation and enforcement, of a reluctance to risk hurting profits by cracking down on
suspicious transactions, and of ignorance — perhaps willful ignorance — to what was really going on
The Cullen Commission hearings continue. The commission is
expected to make recommendations and, who knows, it may bring about change
Bulk cash transactions, meanwhile, were banned at B.C. casinos at the end of 2018
The question still remains: what damage was caused by more than a decade of virtually unrestrained
money laundering money coming in and going out with a stamp of approval by the government?
Thanks for watching