My bet, haha, was it was a social dinner. They would keep the business behind closed doors and away from the wives and any prying eyes. It just doesn’t make sense to be discussing strategy etc. with the wives along at the Keg, they don’t want to hear that crap. Don’t underestimate the power of networking and socializing to cement working relationships.
Coleman doesn’t have a snowballs chance of hell in becoming the next premier. He may duke it out to become the next leader of the party and could win, but this would be the death knell for a party that is already on it’s knees. Don’t forget the former cop, turned politician has bungled every single portfolio he’s been on and there is enough of a trail to seriously question his morals and ethics, which citizens in BC are doing with the party in a big way. His nonchalance over this lottery scandal is indicative of someone who has zero ability to now connect to how voters are perceiving this very serious situation.
Question, where is the commercial crime unit of the RCMP in this lottery scam? You effectively have a sitting government, working in conjunction (colluding?, secret commissions?) with many other players, that has paved the way to what may be the biggest money laundering scheme in Canadian history. The FINTRAC investigation of BC Lottery should be made public and turned over to the RCMP. You just know there was a conversation had between some major players, “hey, you know how we can beat these FINTRAC regulations for reporting, let’s just change the reporting threshold to $9999. That’ll keep FINTRAC out of our hair. Changes like that don’t just happen. What specific individuals were involved in that conversation and then made it happen? The public deserves to know that.
Have said it before, will say it again, the BC Liberal government is the most corrupt, most incompetent and most unethical in the history of this fair province and quite likely Canada.
Questions to ask. Who made the decisions? Anyone influence the decision-makers? How exactly? Who benefits? Where is the RCMP in all of this? A simple time line tells the story and gives answers to many of the questions that arise out of this latest story of corruption in BC.
Remind us again why it is that BC's gambling and gaming enterprises are under the Ministry of Housing & Social Development and not the Ministry of Public Safety & Solicitor General? Who made that decision when they were deciding on the structure of government?
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Fun with FINTRAC
Public Eye Online. July 21, 2010.
Watch Coleman explain it all away here.
Let's compare and contrast: yesterday, when asked about British Columbia Lottery Corp. being fined more than $670,000 for 1,020 violations of the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Act, Solicitor General Mike de Jong told The Vancouver Sun, "Obviously the facilities are there to administer to members of the public engaged in lawful gaming activities and if some of these early reports are true, yes, it is troubling." But, last year, when confronted with allegations there was a "ton of criminal activity" at the province's casinos that wasn't being effectively targeted, the minister responsible Rich Coleman gave us a number of reasons why that wasn't the case.
The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada is the same agency that fined the lottery corporation.
BCLC president and chief executive officer Michael Graydon has said those fines were connected to problems with the reports it filed to the centre - not money laundering or terrorism.
The Vancouver Sun paraphrased Mr. Graydon as stating those reports - which record transactions of $10,000 or more - were late, had clerical errors or didn't include enough information to satisfy the Act. [Ed. Technical incompetence can excuse away so many things, can't it?]
Mr. Coleman didn't respond to repeated interview requests placed through the housing and social development ministry's communications shop.
The fines, which are being appealed, followed an audit the centre conducted between October 28 and November 19, 2009. Mr. Graydon has said the problems that led to the fines have since been solved.******************************
Mike DeJong Worried About BCLC's Casinos After Money Laundering Rule Violations: Online Gambling Site also a Concern
Kim Bolan and Jonathan Fowlie, Vancouver Sun July 20, 2010
De Jong said Tuesday he is reviewing reports he has just received about more than 1,000 violations by the lottery corporation of the federal Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act.
He [B.C. Lottery Corp. CEO Michael Graydon] said the final eight improper reports came because people cashed out more than $10,000 without proper identification, and the casino did not do the follow-up required under the law.Part of the fine came because B.C. Lotteries missed a deadline for creating "a geographic profiling and high-risk profiling and analysis system" that had been requested by FINTRAC and is now in place, he said.
"In 2008, the BCLC was criticized for inadequate reporting relatd to money laundering," Simpson said. [Shane Simpson, NDP MLA.]
And he said BCLC board chairman John McLernon claimed at the time in a letter then minister John van Dongen that a number of steps were being taken to fix the problem.
McLernon said there were more incidents of suspicious transactions at B.C. casinos than in other Canadian jurisdictions.
Last year, the B.C. government increased the weekly limit that can be spent on online gaming to $9,999 from $120. Critics said the move was set subvert FINTRAC rules where transactions of $10,000 or more must be reported to Ottawa.
De Jong said Tuesday he didn't know how the limit was arrived at.
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Begg's the Question
Public Eye Online. November 16, 2009.
Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman has said the province's anti-illegal gaming team was disbanded on the advice of the RCMP unit's consultative board. But, according to internal documents obtained by Public Eye, the top bureaucrat responsible for overseeing policing in British Columbia wrote about shutting down that government-funded unit "ASAP" three months before the board made its recommendation.
On October 23, 2008, the then director of the province's police services Kevin Begg sent an email to the general manager of the government's gaming police and enforcement branch Derek Sturko with the subject heading "IGET (sic)" - the acronym for the province's now disbanded integrated illegal gaming enforcement team.
In that email Mr. Begg stated, "I need to give RCMP directions to shut the unit down ASAP so that we do not have any financial obligations beyond Mar 31. Not sure how this impacts your unit."
**********************************Ex-unit Commander questions Government's Commitment to "meaningful" Illegal Gaming Investigations
Public Eye Online. October 21, 2009.
The former commander of British Columbia's now-defunct integrated illegal gaming enforcement team is questioning the provincial government's commitment to "meaningful" illegal gaming investigations. Speaking exclusively with Public Eye, Fred Pinnock also described the RCMP's senior management in British Columbia as demonstrating "willful blindness" when it comes to the connection between illegal gaming and organized crime. And he said his provincially-funded RCMP team should have been expanded - not shutdown.
Mr. Pinnock said there hasn't been any big busts at casinos even though "it obvious that highly-pedigreed gangsters frequent these venues on a continuing basis. There's a ton of criminal activity being conducted in these places every day, including money laundering, loansharking and other enterprise crimes."
The RCMP is "playing ostrich" about the problems inside legal gaming facilities, he concluded, with senior management only giving "token attention" to the illegal gaming problems outside those establishments.
****************************Question: What were Rich Coleman and Patrick Kinsella Discussing at Dinner Last Night?
Alex G. Tsakumis: Rebel with a Clause.
In what must be one of the STUPIDEST moves for a sitting Cabinet Minister of the Campbell govt, Minister Rich Coleman was having dinner last night at the Keg Restaurant in South Surrey, with none other than former unregistered (non?)lobbyist and BC Liberal insider/pal of the Premier, Patrick Kinsella. They were accompanied by their wives and third woman.
Whistleblowers BC says: