Hong Kong, Macau pivotal players in massive criminal racket using Canadian casinos, ‘dirty money’ report claims
Report paints stark picture of the role China’s two special administrative regions and wider Guangdong province play in international organised crime
Hong Kong and Macau have been identified as “pivotal” players in an international criminal racket which has seen massive amounts of drug money and other illicit funds laundered through casinos in Canada, exacerbating the country’s opioid overdose crisis and stoking an overheating property market.
A long-awaited independent report entitled “Dirty Money” – commissioned by the attorney general of British Columbia (BC), Canada’s third-largest province – paints a stark picture of the role China’s two special administrative regions and the wider Guangdong province play in international organised crime.
Compiled by a former deputy commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Peter German QC, the 250-page report was published early Thursday morning and prompted British Columbia’s attorney general David Eby to declare an effective war on dirty money.
“The German report paints a troubling picture of government that didn’t respond effectively to pervasive money laundering in BC casinos. The era of inaction and denial is over. We are moving immediately to get dirty money out of BC casinos,” Eby said.
He said the multimillion-dollar racket should serve as a warning and pledged immediate action, starting with the complete adoption of the report’s 48 recommendations which will bring sweeping changes to the way casinos are regulated and the law is enforced in British Columbia, home to more than 400,000 people of Chinese descent.