British Columbia's Attorney General, David Eby, will appear before a House of Commons Standing Committee on Finance Ottawa Tuesday, March 27, 2018, to discuss and present anti-money laundering recommendations provided by independent reviewer, Peter German, in regards to amendments to the Proceeds of Crime and Terrorist Financing Act.
“Through agencies like the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Revenue Canada, and the federal RCMP, the Government of Canada has a major role to play in combating money laundering,” said Eby. “British Columbia’s insight on this pressing issue will allow the federal committee to better understand the unique challenges and impacts that we face on this side of the Rockies. We must all be better equipped to take action in the fight against criminal gangs profiting from crime.”
Eby will cover, among other things, information sharing between law enforcement and FINTRAC, geographic targeting orders for auto dealers, and resourcing for police.
Information sharing between law enforcement and regulatory agencies is a critical component of fighting money laundering locally as well as world-wide. Currently, law enforcement officials do not work with FINTRAC, Canada's financial transactions and reporting analysis regulatory agency, which means that Canadian police and FINTRAC do not know what information the other entity has due to privacy concerns. Conversely, in the United States, FINTRAC's sister agency FinCEN, shares information with law enforcement across the country and the world in order to better prevent, detect, and prosecute international money laundering and terrorist financing.
Geographic targeting orders have historically been used to, as their name suggests, focus on certain areas and financial crimes where a hish risk for abuse exists. In German's recommendations, he suggests that a geographic targeting order pertaining to cash purchases of luxury vehicles within Victoria could assist in the tracking of potential money laundering risks, meaning that motor-vehicle dealers would report suspicious transactions to FINTRAC using a $10,000 threshold.
Increasing the resources available to municipal and provincial police forces to handle leads provided by FINTRAC is paramount to the success of Canada's AML framework - the RCMP, in 2012, eliminated their national Proceeds of Crime and Commericla Crime Sections in favor of a new task force. In the 5 years since, there has been a gap in federal policing in the AML area. Providing enhanced resources to non-federal police agencies would do well to support Canada's ongoing AML policy revision and execution.
https://news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2018AG0015-000491