The Globe & Mail in Canada on 8th May reported on the latest report on money laundering in the province. It says that international organised crime groups have been using thousands of “straw buyers” to help them export vehicles from Metro Vancouver to China – all while avoiding tens of millions of dollars in provincial sales tax – which can be 20% for vehicles worth $150,000 or more. This is only one of several money laundering tactics identified in a new report from retired senior RCMP official, Peter German – who previously reported on abuse of gambling in the province. High-end car dealers reported seeing clients pay for luxury cars using bags of cash filled with as much as $240,000, but explained that they have no obligation to report such suspicious transactions to the federal AML agency. Several luxury car dealers reported gangsters turned to leasing instead of outright cash purchases in recent years, in part to avoid losing these high-priced cars if targeted by police and the provincial civil forfeiture office; and dealers also noted many suspicious transactions involved WeChat Pay and UnionPay, cards that draw from Chinese bank accounts, which it is noted are out of the reach of Canadian investigators.
The report is available at –
https://news.gov.bc.ca/files/German_Report_luxury_cars.pdf
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