{"id":95935,"date":"2019-01-10T11:33:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=95935"},"modified":"2019-01-10T11:33:14","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T19:33:14","slug":"bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/","title":{"rendered":"BC Money Laundering Case Collapsed Because Prosecution Accidentally Blew Police Informant\u2019s Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

What would have been British Columbia\u2019s biggest ever money-laundering case was botched because federal prosecutors accidentally sent the details of a key police informant to the defense.<\/p>\n

\"Money
British Columbia Attorney General David Eby described the collapse of the Silver International prosecution as \u201cdisturbing.\u201d The operation may have laundered billions of dollars, much of it through the province\u2019s casino industry. (Image: Chad Hipolito\/The Canadian Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was alleged that Richmond-based Silver International was a front for an underground bank that lent money to high-rollers on gambling junkets from China. The company received its cash \u2013 largely drug money — from criminal gangs who were repaid via transactions into Chinese bank accounts.<\/p>\n

Police have claimed the operation laundered up to $220 million per year<\/a>, although the international anti-money laundering organization Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has said the true figure could be closer to $1 billion.<\/p>\n

The case against Silver International and two of its operators, Caixuan Qin and her husband Jian Jun Zhu, was mysteriously stayed<\/a> at the request of prosecutors in November. Now, Global News Canada has learned the reason why.<\/p>\n

‘High Risk of Death’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

During a standard evidence disclosure process to Silver\u2019s lawyer, the name and information of the secret informant who helped police build their case was inadvertently disclosed. Prosecutors concluded the informant would be placed at \u201chigh risk of death\u201d if the case continued.<\/p>\n

\n

The case was supposed to be the culmination of Operation E-Pirate, a massive police operation that exposed an operation that allegedly provided financial services for Chinese triads, Mexican cartels, and Middle Eastern organized crime groups with ties to terrorism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A report published last June concluded that, thanks to Silver International, BC casinos had become a \u201claundromat for organized crime\u201d and that money laundering was so rife the global intelligence community had taken to referring to similar operations elsewhere as \u201cthe Vancouver Model.\u201d<\/p>\n

$2 Million in Cash Seized <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Records show that in October 2015 police raided Silver International\u2019s offices, Qin\u2019s house, and the offices of Style Travel, another business owned by Qin and Zhu, seizing more than $2 million in cash, as well as cocaine, River Rock Casino chips, credit card skimmers, counterfeit IDs, and weapons.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was incredibly disappointed \u2014 as I imagine are many British Columbians,\u201d BC\u2019s AG David Eby told a news conference in Vancouver on learning of the collapse of the case in November. \u201cIt is a disturbing signal that a prosecution of this magnitude collapses shortly before going to trial.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to be clear that I am not blaming the police, not blaming the federal prosecutors, I am not blaming the federal government,\u201d he added. \u201cBut I think we need to know what went wrong \u2014 because something obviously went terribly wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What would have been British Columbia\u2019s biggest ever money-laundering case was botched because federal prosecutors accidentally sent the details of a key police informant to the defense. It was alleged that Richmond-based Silver International was a front for an underground bank that lent money to high-rollers on gambling junkets from China. The company received its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":95937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,60,18],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBC Money-Laundering Case Collapsed Over Exposure of Police Informant<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The prosecution of Silver International was set to be British Columbia\u2019s biggest money-laundering case ever, until it was stayed last November due to the accidental exposure of a police informant.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BC Money-Laundering Case Collapsed Over Exposure of Police Informant\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The prosecution of Silver International was set to be British Columbia\u2019s biggest money-laundering case ever, until it was stayed last November due to the accidental exposure of a police informant.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-01-10T19:33:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/eby.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/\",\"name\":\"BC Money-Laundering Case Collapsed Over Exposure of Police Informant\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/eby.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-01-10T19:33:14+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-01-10T19:33:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"The prosecution of Silver International was set to be British Columbia\u2019s biggest money-laundering case ever, until it was stayed last November due to the accidental exposure of a police informant.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/bc-money-laundering-case-collapsed-over-exposure-of-police-informant\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/eby.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/eby.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"British Columbia Attorney General David Eby described the collapse of the Silver International prosecution as \u201cdisturbing.\u201d The operation may have laundered billions of dollars, much of it through the province\u2019s casino industry. 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