Chinese Triads In The West

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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 109772Unread post Blue Frost »

Likely true, I don't doubt he was on the take, and still likely in round about ways.
The mayors of that city has always been scum bags.


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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 110212Unread post Gary Oak »

If Chinese Canadiscams ever manage to fulfill their goal of taking over Canada [ FAN QING FU MING ] then they can operate their sex slavery operations like they do in China . Good looking girls go missing all the time in China. Check out these Canadiscams. Wasn't it wonderful of us to let them into Canada ? :down:

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... ation.html

Another individual, Tao YANG, 35, was arrested in Toronto on April 21.
Seven accused will appear in court on April 29 after new charges were filed under section 467.12 of the Criminal Code (gangsterism).
The accused are:
Jeonghwan SEO, 34, from Toronto
Daegun CHUN, 46, from Toronto
Kai CHEN, 37, from Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot
Ying Li, 31, from Toronto
Anyang CUI, 26, from Montréal
Le YU, 38, from Montréal
Tao YANG, 34, from Toronto

Montréal, April 1, 2015 – Two major cells of a Canada-wide prostitution ring were disrupted between March 27 and April 1, 2015 in the wake of an investigation targeting an Asian-based international criminal organization that is allegedly involved in the smuggling of young women into Canada for sexual exploitation through various bawdy-houses.
As part of an investigation dubbed Project Confidence, investigators of the RCMP Immigration and Passport Section conducted a three-step operation in the Greater Montréal and Toronto areas, resulting in six arrests and sixteen searches.
It is alleged that the victims, who are mainly from Korea and China, received assistance from the criminal organization to enter Canada illegally via land crossings or with visas obtained through false pretenses. Upon entering Canada, the victims were taken over, controlled and exploited by a prostitution ring operating Canada-wide (Halifax, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver).
Charges
Investigators arrested several key players as well as the main leaders of this criminal organization. The accused will face a number of charges under the Criminal Code, including:
Material benefit from sexual services
Procuring
Procuring – person under 18 years
Advertising sexual services
The accused are:
Kai CHEN, 37, from Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot
Nan WU, 33, from Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot
Le YU, 38, from Montréal
Anyang CUI, 26, from Montréal
Daegun CHUN, 46, from Toronto
Ying Li, 31, from Toronto
Jeonghwan SEO, 34, from Toronto
Mélanie WILLIAMS-JOHNSON, 20, from Montréal
The alleged ringleaders arrested in Toronto this morning will appear at the Montréal Court House Thursday, April 2nd. The other accused, who were arrested in Montréal last March 27 and 30, appeared at the Montréal Court House earlier this week.
Also, two clients were arrested on the premises at the time the operations took place and charged with being found in a bawdy-house. They were later released on a promise to appear.
Seized Property
Investigators conducted sixteen searches and seized offence-related property, including:
Computers
Cell phones
Two vehicles, a 2011 Infiniti FX50 and a 2014 Honda Civic
Large sums of money
The Partners
The investigation, launched in January 2014, was conducted in partnership with theSection des Enquêtes multidisciplinaires et coordination jeunesse/équipe de moralité Nordof the Service de police de la ville de MontréalExternal link, Opens in a new window, the Canada Border Services AgencyExternal link, Opens in a new window, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Greater Toronto Area Detachment,Aéroports de MontréalExternal link, Opens in a new window Airport Security and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of CanadaExternal link, Opens in a new window.
The RCMP works closely with its domestic and international partners to disrupt criminal organizations that facilitate human smuggling into Canada. Through its efforts to curb criminal activity at the border, the RCMP contributes to ensuring the safety of the public.
Appeal to the Public
If you have information on illicit activity involving illegal immigration, contact the RCMP at 1-800-771-5401 or 514 939-8300.
Who could be a victim of sexual exploitation? Visit the Human Trafficking National Coordination Centre to learn more about the indicators.
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 110537Unread post Gary Oak »

Speaking chinese it really bothers me that we have to tolerate living with these conniving sneaks who secretly hate us and wait and hope for the day that China takes Canada over.

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... -boss.html

The secret life of a Chinese crime boss in Canada
(Published in the The Asian Pacific Post Feb. 4, 2004)

When the communist tanks rolled into Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and violently crushed a pro-democracy demonstration, Kwai Ping Hun was barely thirty years old but well on his way to becoming a ruthless crime boss.

The Guangdong native was already on the radar of police in China and Hong Kong for a series of violent armed robberies and needed to find a safe refuge - a place where he could lie low and further his criminal ambition.

Canada quickly came into focus for Kwai.

After all thousands of Chinese were fleeing the communist crackdown and Ottawa was contemplating amnesty for those already there and did not want to return.

On April 14, 1991, Kwai Ping Hun carrying a Chinese passport declaring him to be Liang Jin Xiong, with a birth date of Nov 28, 1960, took a plane from Hong Kong and landed in Toronto.

An immigration officer processed his papers as a refugee claimant fleeing the fallout from the Tiananmen Square incident.

Kwai aka Liang gave his address in Toronto as 12, Claircrest Road, Markham, Ontario - a brick home on a middle-class street.

Here, Kwai did not wait long before hooking up with the local Triad boys. His criminal mind saw a huge opportunity in cigarette smuggling.

It was a time when police were struggling to check the beginnings of a multi-million dollar illegal industry which was breaking down traditional organized crime barriers.

Powerful outlaw motorcycle gangs began working with Chinese Triads and native Indians to smuggle duty-free cigarettes across the Canadian-U.S. border or ship them in from overseas.

Cigarettes were bought tax-free in the United States, then smuggled across the St. Lawrence River into Canada via Native Indian reservations and sold at enormous profit.

At the height of this illegal industry in 1992, criminals smuggled 4,000 cases of cigarettes with a street value of C$8 million into Canada every week.

Kwai by this time had become entrenched in Toronto's Chinese mafia and wanted to cash in on the lucrative cigarette trade.

But unlike other cigarette smugglers, he decided to do one better.

According to police and court records Kwai and his gang were among the first to set up a factory to produce counterfeit cigarettes in Canada with smuggled tobacco from the United States.

The gang is believed to have started its operations around June 1992, about a year after Kwai arrived in Canada claiming to be a refugee fleeing the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Between June and November of that year, police believe that Kwai and his gang had smuggled into Canada more than six tonnes of cigarette tobacco that could be turned into one million dollars worth of cigarettes on the street.

They were storing their tobacco at a warehouse in Scarborough, outside of Toronto.

On Oct 30, 1992, a police and customs teams raided the Apex Mini Storage on Metropolitan Rd. in the Warden Ave.-Highway 401 area and seized the stored tobacco.

Kwai, who was 32 at the time and staying at Markham, Ontario was arrested along with Lung Sang Hung, 37, also of Markham, and Kwok Wah Lai, 31, of Scarborough.

The three men were charged with possession of manufactured tobacco under the Canada Excise Act and released on bail.

The arrests, however, did not deter Kwai or his gang.

They continued to set up a multi-million dollar operation to produce thousands of cartons of phony, brand-name cigarettes.

At the same time Canadian police and customs were also tracking the group.

Almost a year after Kwai's initial arrest, another police and customs team swooped down on an industrial unit on Finchdene Square, in the Finch-Markham area of Ontario.

The joint investigation by RCMP Bowmanville and Canada Customs in Niagara resulted in the arrests of three people and the seizure of tons of tobacco, cigarette-making machinery and a .45-calibre handgun.

Among those arrested was Kwai.

Inside the warehouse police found 4,500 kilos of tobacco and a complete cigarette manufacturing operation. The cigarette-making machine was capable of turning out 1,200 cigarettes a minute. Police also found fake labels and forged packaging.

RCMP Corporal Ian Pole said after the raid it was the first fake cigarette factory found in Canada.

Pole said he believed the gang was illegally buying up to four tonnes of tobacco every three months and smuggling it into Canada using false documents.

Forty-five hundred kilos can be made into 34,000 cartons of cigarettes worth $1,500,000,h Pole said at that time.

Kwai and two others arrested at the time were again released on bail after being charged under the Customs Act.

Kwai ignored the charges and a bench warrant exists for him until today.

Realising that his criminal resume may come up at any attempt to get his refugee status formalized, Kwai, who was known to the Canadian authorities as Liang Jin Xiong, began using several other identities.

His aliases included Li Guo-hua, with a birth date of July 10, 1961 and Lai Kwok Wah, the name of a criminal accomplice.

To avoid arrest and deportation he began moving around switching addresses in the Scarborough area.

Among the places he lived included a 17-storey apartment complex at 5 Greystone Walk Drive in Scarborough, another apartment building at 2460 Eglinton Avenue East and a house at 11, Boxdene Avenue.

All the neighbourhoods were home to Greater Toronto's burgeoning Chinese community, a place where someone like Kwai could easily disappear.

On August 4, 1993, Kwai, using a Chinese passport numbered 2530842, applied for a 10-year U.S. visa at the American consular offices in Toronto.

On the passport used for the application, he gave his name as Li Guo Hua alias Lai Kwok Wah with a birth date of July 10, 1961.

Background checks did not reveal the true identity of the applicant and Kwai was shortly later issued with U.S. visa number 05690686.

Three months later, Metro Toronto's major crime unit arrested Kwai aka Liang and his girlfriend Wong Chei-Ling and charged the duo with illegal possession of 60 rounds of ammunition and several guns.

The couple skipped bail and investigators believe it was around this time Kwai began using his different identities to move in and out of North America to commit and orchestrate crimes in Hong Kong.

He was now carrying HK Identity Card No. H104697(9) with a birth date of 18 March 1960.

Kwai by this time is believed to have had abandoned his refugee claim and is thought to be one of the 4,500 Tiananmen Square applicants who were ordered out of Canada.

Attempts by The Asian Pacific Post to determine if Kwai was actually deported were met with government officials citing privacy legislation and the need to protect an applicants identity.

Asian Organized Crime investigators in Ontario believe Kwai is one of the 36,000 illegals who have gone underground in the province. The government this year admitted that it has lost track of them.

After his arrest on weapons charges in Toronto, Kwai and his gang went on a major crime spree in Hong Kong. Kwai had recruited gang members in Hong Kong and in Mainland China to facilitate his criminal enterprise which had now grown to include money laundering and handling of stolen property.

Fung Kin-man, chief superintendent of the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau in Hong Kong said police have pinned between 15 to 20 violent armed robberies in the 90's and the last few years to Kwai and his gang.

The total take exceeded US$5 million.

Kwai and his gang were ruthless using hand grenades and an array of weapons, including the Peoples Liberation Army issue 7.62mm Black Star pistols.

They did not hesitate to open fire.

About 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 22, 2001, three plainclothes Hong Kong police officers were on patrol in the Kowloon City area where they noticed four suspicious males near the junction of Waterloo Road and Peace Avenue.

When the officers approached the group, two of them pulled pistols from their clothing and opened fire at close range. One of them, police allege, was Kwai.

Constable Sze Kwan-ming, 28, was shot between the eyes but escaped with his life because the bullet passed downwards, exiting through his jaw and leaving his brain unharmed.

Constable Lai Chi-wai, 38, suffered serious injuries after being shot in the shoulder.

Investigations identified the same group as being responsible for a daring heist one month later on a jewellery store in the Pioneer Centre on Hong Kong's Nathan Road.

Witnesses said the gunmen, one of whom was carrying a grenade opened fire but did not hit anyone.

The shooting of the police officers brought the entire weight of the Hong Kong police force to bear down on Kwai and his gang, who by now were the most feared criminal group in the territory.

The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau posted a HK$2 million reward for the capture and convictions of Kwai and his gang.

What we are dealing with is a group of dangerous criminals. They are heavily armed with firearms and will shoot people, without scruples, said Chief Superintendent Andy Tsang Wai-hung Tsang.

We will search every corner to hunt them down, he vowed.

Hong Kong police intensified their cooperation and intelligence efforts with Macau police and the Public Security Bureau in Guangdong, China, Kwai's home base.

On July 18, 2001, heavily armed police swooped down on 12 premises in Hong Kong and arrested 20 people on suspicion of providing support for Kwai and his gang.

Those arrested included 13 men aged 22 to 68 and seven women aged between 23 and 64.

Police seized bank account records, expensive watches and a jungle knife and asked Interpol to issue Red Notice appeals for international assistance to dismantle the Kwai Ping Hung syndicate.

Last Christmas eve, after a painstaking global search, Hong Kong police's elite Flying Tiger police commandos swooped down on a flat and arrested the territory's most wanted criminal, putting an end to crime spree that spanned three decades.

The pre-dawn raid which caught Kwai sleeping and one of his lieutenants Ng Chun-Keung, 46, also yielded a huge arms cache.

Police seized one AK-47 assault rifle, two shotguns, six 7.62mm pistols, one .45-calibre pistol and 882 rounds of ammunition. They also found three People's Liberation Army (PLA) Type 1 hand-grenades, two PLA Type 67 hand-grenades and two Russian F1 hand-grenades.

It was the biggest arms haul in Hong Kong in 20 years.

The duo was taken to court under heavy security on Christmas day, surrounded by shotgun toting policemen in helmets and bullet proof vests. Their next court date is scheduled for this month.

As Hong Kong police piece together evidence to put away Kwai and his gang for good, a Canadian MP is urging Ottawa to study the case and plug loopholes in the immigration system that is believed to allow the fugitive to travel freely around the world on bogus passports.

MP Darrell Stinson said the case of Kwai Ping Hun would provide valuable insight for Immigration Canada authorities on how to spot and quickly deport the criminals who are abusing the refugee system.

If what we are being told about his comings and goings in Canada is true, this case will help us stop others, he said, after Kwai was arrested in Hong Kong.

This type of refugee gives a bad name to all the others who really need a safe place like Canada to live said Stinson.
Posted by Conan Doyle at 10:12 p.m.
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 113700Unread post Gary Oak »

Betty Yan also looks quite good so there is a good chance also that she prostituted herself at times. Canadians are a nice people as a whole and Canada is a great country yet these people have no loyalty to us at all. Sure they like to enjoy the benefits of living in the safe environment that it is our nature to create but they also see us as a people and country to scam for China.

Death was her destiny, say cops

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... -cops.html
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 132478Unread post Gary Oak »

Here is more evidence to show what I have known for a long time. The triads and the overseas communities work with China to FAN QING FU MING the people of the nations that let them in and work hand and glove with Chinese espionage nand military.

China set up crime web in Canada, report says

ANDREW MITROVICA in Toronto JEFF SALLOT in Ottawa

The Chinese government and Asian criminal gangs have been working together in drug smuggling, nuclear espionage and other criminal activities that constitute a grave threat to Canadian security, a secret study by federal law-enforcement and intelligence analysts says.

"In many ways, China remains one of the greatest ongoing threats to Canada's national security and Canadian industry," the report says.

The study, titled Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada, was prepared in June, 1997, by as many as five analysts from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who worked for about two years using classified files from both agencies.

Copies of the original draft were destroyed or kept under lock and key until The Globe and Mail obtained one this week.

The study, known as Project Sidewinder, was considered by some CSIS managers to be so controversial that it was watered down and rewritten before a sanitized version was circulated to other government agencies last year, according to sources familiar with the history of the document.

The Sidewinder report describes an alliance among the Beijing government and its espionage services, Hong Kong tycoons and Chinese criminal gangs known as triads. The ultimate objectives included:

Winning influence with Canadian politicians.

Stealing high-tech secrets.

Laundering money.

Gaining control of Canadian companies in real estate, media and other sectors.

The RCMP and CSIS files revealed only "the tip of the iceberg," the analysts concluded. They recommended expanding their joint task force to include officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Immigration Canada and Canada Customs.

That recommendation was never followed. Instead, CSIS managers shelved the 1997 report and dismissed its conclusions as a rumour-laced conspiracy theory, with little factual evidence to support its potentially explosive conclusions.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee, an independent watchdog body, is investigating allegations that the original Sidewinder report was suppressed because of political pressure. The committee is expected to complete its investigation and release the results to Parliament within weeks.


Chinese embassy spokeswoman Qin Xin denied that her government is involved in espionage or criminal activities in Canada or poses any threat to Canadian national security. "These kinds of accusations are totally groundless," she said.

Spokesmen for the RCMP and CSIS would not comment on the main conclusion of the study -- that China poses a grave threat to Canadian national security.

The Sidewinder study is still classified secret and thus the RCMP can't talk about it, Mountie spokesman Sergeant Andre Guertin said.

CSIS spokesman Dan Lambert said the service does not discuss targets, so it will not confirm or deny whether it considers Chinese activities in Canada a security threat. He did say that CSIS maintains a vigorous counterintelligence program.

Mr. Lambert denied that the original Sidewinder study was watered down and insisted there was no interference from the agency's political bosses.

Both the RCMP and CSIS subjected the 1997 draft to extensive review to make sure the final version, which was produced in 1999, could be supported by facts, he said.

CSIS agents familiar with the 1997 version, however, bristled at Mr. Lambert's version of events and noted that the Liberal government has courted trade and business opportunities with China since coming to office in 1993. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien plans to lead another trade mission to China this year.

The analysts wrote in the foreword of their 23-page study that "this report presents concrete facts, not just ideas or speculation."

The study notes that an earlier RCMP investigation, code-named Project Sunset, turned up evidence that an international food-services company based in Southern Ontario was involved in smuggling heroin into Canada from Hong Kong. The company's chairman was affiliated with a triad. Company managers met regularly with Chinese trade and military representatives in Canada.

The report also says Ontario Hydro believes it was the victim of theft of nuclear technology "by an individual of Chinese origin." The man sent hours worth of material by fax to a telephone number at a Chinese state science and technology commission.

In two other cases the report cited, employees of Chinese origin at Canadian high-tech companies stole proprietary information and sold it to China.

The report says Chinese intelligence services send agents to Canada as part of business and trade delegations.

Chinese intelligence services have set up "front companies" in Canada solely for espionage purposes, including theft of business secrets, the report says. The companies have regular contacts with the triad gangs.

Drawing on intelligence developed by other Western countries, the analysts say there is a well-established relationship between the Communist government in Beijing and the Hong Kong-based triads.

More than 200,000 Hong Kong residents immigrated to Canada during the 1990s. The report says the great majority of these immigrants "were legitimate, [but]Canadian authorities detected a significant presence of Chinese organized crime elements." Some eventually acquired Canadian citizenship.

The study notes that a former Canadian citizenship court judge faces 33 fraud and forgery charges in connection with immigration applications by Hong Kong residents. The RCMP laid the charges in May, 1997, but the case has yet to come to trial.

Some Hong Kong investors and mainland Chinese with ties to the Communist Party leadership and Chinese intelligence services came here using the "entrepreneur" and "investor" categories for Canadian immigration, the report says.

Canadian intelligence indicates that some of these people have worked with the Beijing regime to establish companies that are used as cover for criminal and espionage activities, the report says. "This country is an excellent place to invest in companies to launder the profits derived from criminal activities."

Some companies controlled by Hong Kong executives with ties to the Beijing regime have obtained federal government classified contracts, the report says.

The study also says more than 200 major firms in Canada are influenced or owned by triads, tycoons or Chinese national companies.

The Chinese government buys or sets up a legal company in Canada that in turn buys other companies, the report says, creating "an effective domino effect . . . that acts like a well-spun web or network of strategic points."

Initially, the study says, Chinese intelligence agencies acquired firms in so-called soft-sector firms that attracted little attention from CSIS, but then moved to take control of more sensitive companies in high-tech sectors.

Thus, China is quietly but systematically acquiring sensitive Canadian technology, including nuclear information, and is exerting undue influence over Canada's political environment by assuming control of key portions of Canadian industry, the report insists.

The study says there is Chinese "interference" in politics through political donations. It said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating about 2,000 companies to determine whether they are being used by the Chinese to funnel illegal campaign contributions to U.S. political parties.

In Canada, the study says, the same pattern can be discerned. Companies believed to be controlled by Chinese interests contributed money to the federal Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties between 1991 and 1994.

Prominent former Canadian politicians have been named to boards of Chinese state-owned corporations, the report adds. The report did not identify the politicians by name.

Beijing has a particular interest in Chinese-language media in Canada, the study says. It notes that one Chinese-language cable TV outlet was the target of a takeover bid by a Hong Kong triad figure in 1992. The bid was withdrawn after federal officials notified the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission of the bidder's connections to organized crime.

A Chinese-language film-production studio in Ontario was owned by triad figures who were in regular contact with Chinese diplomats posted here, the report says.

The study notes various real-estate purchases, including hotels, in Toronto, Vancouver and other Canadian cities by the owner of a large south Asian gambling casino. The man was put on a Canadian police watch list 10 years ago because of his alleged involvement in organized crime.

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... eport.html
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 133622Unread post Gary Oak »

I have long known that there simply must be a story about how Chinese can afford to plunk down a million or two for a house when they sometimes don't even have a job. I am glad that finally some investigative journalists are looking into this mystery.

Chinese money laundering in Canadian real estate?

Chinese money laundering in Canadian real estate?


By Marc Montgomery | english@rcinet.caTuesday 25 August, 2015


A new report for the government agency that tracks money laundering says the overly hot real estate market in Canadian cities has a “significant risk” for criminal activity.

In Canada, professionals and businesses are required to report cash transactions of 10,000 dollars or more, as well as report on anything they find suspicious.

The report focuses on the Vancouver market where a great deal of offshore money is used to purchase real estate.

The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, commonly known as FINTRAC, commissioned a study by a Toronto accounting firm to investigate all reporting sectors in 2014, but to concentrate on real estate. The report says real estate is seen as a higher risk for money laundering than all other areas including casinos, banks, and money-wiring services (all of which have to file reports to FINTRAC).

“The purchase of Canadian real estate assets with offshore money and or by offshore persons was noted as a significant risk factor,” a summary of the report noted.

Quoted in the National Post news service, a Fintrac official said, “We have significantly increased our examinations in the Vancouver area. Our compliance people are not happy.”


Earlier this year, Chinese buyers paid about a million dollars for the British Columbia ghost town of Bradian with a view to creating a huge ski reort/ housing development in the mountains near Lillooet
Earlier this year, Chinese buyers paid about a million dollars for the British Columbia ghost town of Bradian with a view to creating a huge ski reort/ housing development in the mountains near Lillooet © John Lovelace Real Estate Team


FINTRAC noted that between January 2012 to June 2015, it received only eight reports from Vancouver area brokers, sales reps, and real estate agencies involving large cash transactions or suspicious deals. These involved two cash deals, and five suspicious real estate deals..

This does not agree with anecdotal reports of many large cash transactions taking place.

Additionally, in that same time period, Fintrac noted that financial institutions in the Vancouver area reported 127,804 large cash transactions, and 8,246 suspicious transactions. Even at that Fintrac noted that banks are under-reporting by not scrutinized real estate deals they are involved with.

Additionally, the Canadian Border Services Agency, reports that in all of North America, Vancouver airport leads in seizures of unreported cash being brought in by Chinese citizens. Between June 2012 and June 2015, some 10 million dollars in undeclared funds was discovered on incoming passengers. However most of it was later returned to the Chinese. The National Post writes that experts they spoke to say this represents a fraction of the illicit money pouring into the Vancouver real-estate market in the wake of a anti-corruption crackdown in China.

Realtors who deal with many Chinese clients say they believe they are complying with Fintrac rules, adding they file client-broker information based on what they are told and say it’s up to Fintrac to determine what is true or false.

Quoted in the (Vancouver) Province newspaper, one realtor noted, “It would be very easy to fool an agent. We are busy by nature and we live off commissions. How much time would you spend investigating identity, profession, and source of income?”

Kenneth (Kim) Marsh is a vice-president with IPSA International, a company that works with foreign governments and banks to recover funds and investigate fraud.

He told CBC news that he has recently been hired by a number of defrauded Chinese banks trying to track down cash laundered into the markets in Vancouver.

“I’ve seen a number of cases now where large amounts of high-end real estate have been purchased over a short period of time, and people are on the run”, adding thats the Canadian real estate market has developed a reputation as place to launder money.

Marsh says there is a danger the flight of cash out of China may intensify with current turmoil in the country’s economy and stock market

There are about 100,000 realtors licenced in Canada but an official noted that Fintrac has only charged seven realtors with infractions, fining them about 10,000 each.

On March 31, Canada’s former ambassador to China, David Mulroney, told a University of British Columbia audience, “There is a significant problem with Chinese officials who are absconding with state funds, and there’s a massive international manhunt,” adding “China is the No. 1 exporter of hot money in the world.”

In addition to the anti-corruption crackdown in China, the state is trying to recover over 1-trillion dollars estimated to have been illegally taken out of the country during the last ten years.

with files from CBC, Business Vancouver, Sam Cooper-National Post

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... adian.html
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 139813Unread post Gary Oak »

We give these evil assholes Canadian citizenship and this is what they do with it. We need to deport the entire families of those involved in drug dealing. THey all want to live among us but they certainly don't show any gratitude.

Triads trouble and the Vancouver drug trade

The Story

Big crime and big money go hand in hand, and in Hong Kong - and increasingly Vancouver - that means the Chinese triads. According to triad member Steven Wong, interviewed in this groundbreaking 1990 CBC Evening News clip, half the heroin that comes into North America goes through Vancouver. From there, it finds its way to every corner of the continent at a highly profitable rate of return. Making matters worse, the triads use spectacular street-level gang violence as a highly effective diversion, a sneaky smoke screen: while the public and police focus on Chinatown shootouts, triad elders quietly move about 3,000 metric tonnes of smack each year.
Did You Know?

The term "triads" refers to Chinese secret societies that came to dominate Asian organized crime in Canada and around the world. These clandestine organizations thrived for centuries as a central part of Chinese society and culture, and were not historically criminal organizations. However, in the postwar era (particularly after the Cultural Revolution in China) triads fled mainland China into Hong Kong and Taiwan, where some elements found enormous profit in supplying black market demands. By 1990, when this CBC-TV report was broadcast, consolidation of their power over heroin trafficking out of the Golden Triangle made the triads a fearsome, global criminal network.

The Golden Triangle generally refers to Burma, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. The proximity of these drug producer areas to the extremely busy Hong Kong port made Vancouver a natural smuggling hub en route to the North American market. Although the Golden Triangle still supplies enormous markets in Asia, particularly along trade routes in Southeast Asia and China, by 2008 the vast majority of the world's heroin supply originated in Afghanistan. According to the 2009 UN World Drug Report, in 1994 farmers in the Golden Triangle cultivated almost 170,000 hectares of poppies destined for opium production. By 2008, only 30,000 hectares of poppy plants grew there. Over the same period, cultivation shifted predominately to Southwest Asia (particularly Afghanistan). While only 75,000 hectares of opium grew there in 1994, by 2008 that number had jumped sharply to almost 160,000.
In 2009, two main trade arteries carry opium from Afghanistan to the rest of the world. One route snakes its way via Iran, Turkey and the Balkans to Western Europe and the U.K. Canadian officials report that 98 per cent of the heroin seized in Canada was trafficked by air through Pakistan and India. Most of the heroin seized in Canada is destined for the U.S. market.
Despite waning production in the Golden Triangle and reduction in overall demand for heroin since the mid-1990s, Asian triads consolidated and expanded their reach in the years after this clip first aired. By the mid 2000s, triads trafficked not only drugs and the chemical precursors used to manufacture synthetic drugs, but weapons, people and human organs among the many facets of their international crime syndicate.
After the interview captured in this clip was broadcast, the RCMP put reporter Terry Gould under police protection. Steven Wong faked his own death in an effort to elude police, and Gould spent more than a decade trying to find him. Gould's book, Paper Fan - The Hunt for Triad Gangster Steven Wong, (2004) chronicles that remarkable story.

http://chinawatchcanada.blogspot.ca/201 ... trade.html
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 142473Unread post Gary Oak »

I think that it is brilliant that Canada is scamming all this dirty money but after they spend it in Canada and it boosts our economy these Chinese mafia memebers should be booted out in the most embarrassing way possible


Chinese criminals using Vancouver real estate for money laundering

Vancouver real estate used for money laundering,international agency says

SAM COOPER
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Published on: September 16, 2016

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An international agency has singled out Vancouver real estate as being vulnerable to money laundering.

Canada has good anti-money-laundering rules, but loopholes and lax enforcement leave Vancouver’s real estate sector vulnerable to transactions from criminals including corrupt Chinese officials, an international agency says.

In a new report, the Financial Action Task Force, a Paris-based intergovernmental group that makes recommendations for fighting money laundering, said Canada has improved standards since the agency’s last evaluation in 2007. But “law enforcement results are not commensurate with the money laundering risk, and asset recovery is low.”

The report highlights Vancouver for money laundering in the real estate sector.

And Canada was judged “non-compliant” with agency recommendations to increase oversight of the wealth sources and transactions of so-called international politically exposed persons.

“The real estate business is exposed to high risk clients, including politically exposed persons, notably from Asia, and foreign investors,” the report says. “For example, there are cases of Chinese officials laundering proceeds of crime through the real estate sector, particularly in Vancouver. Canada may be particularly vulnerable to such laundering as there is no extradition treaty with China.”

A major theme of the agency’s report is that compared to other countries, Canada is at significant risk for money laundering because in 2015 Canadian lawyers won a Supreme Court case exempting them from financial reporting rules that professionals such as bankers and realtors must follow. The constitutional challenge was launched by lawyers in B.C., using client confidentiality arguments.

The agency report suggests that money laundering in real estate and services provided by lawyers, such as creating investment vehicles that can shield true ownership of property, go hand-in-hand.

“The legal profession in Canada is especially vulnerable to misuse for money laundering … due to its involvement in activities exposed to a high money laundering risk, e.g., real estate transactions,” the agency said. “The real estate sector is highly vulnerable to money laundering, including international money laundering activities, and the risk is not fully mitigated, notably because legal counsels … are not required to implement anti-money laundering.”

The agency says that Canada has both domestic and international money laundering problems, but criminal money flowing out of Canada is “moderate” compared to international crime proceeds flowing in. Canada’s multicultural society is a factor in the influx of international crime proceeds, the agency said.



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The agency also notes that privacy rules prevent free flow of information among various Canadian enforcement agencies and the country’s anti-money-laundering agency, Fintrac. And federal police resources are geared towards stopping terrorist financing,the Financial Action Task Force said, even though money laundering presents a bigger risk in Canada.

Kim Marsh, a former RCMP international organized crime unit leader, said he and other critics have long been voicing the key criticisms made by the task force: that Canadian lawyers have opened a major hole in the anti-money laundering system, and that the RCMP does not focus adequate resources on money laundering enforcement.

“I think there are professionals that don’t care where the money comes from,” Marsh said. “I think lawyers are a significant cog in the process of sometimes illicit money flowing into B.C. real estate.”

Dave Jordan, spokesman for the B.C. Law Society, said in a statement that the society self-regulates and “has been actively engaged in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing activities for over a decade.”

“Our profession is not engaging or assisting in money-laundering activities,” David Crossin, president of the Law Society of B.C., said in a statement. “There have only been a few instances of lawyers violating Law Society rules concerning these retainer arrangements, but nothing that detracts from the overall integrity of our profession in this regard.”

Crossin said any information suggesting a B.C. lawyer is involved in money laundering or breaking rules will be promptly investigated by the society.

Kim Marsh said that since the 9/11 terrorism attacks in the United States, the RCMP has dedicated most of its federal crime resources to national security, at the expense of investigating money laundering and organized crime. He said the RCMP has four national units focused on federal crimes, and that under the current “triage” system money laundering cases get little attention. He said given the scope of B.C.’s money laundering problem, a dedicated federal money laundering investigation unit should be stationed in the province.

B.C. NDP Housing critic David Eby, who has proposed a B.C. money laundering and tax evasion unit to investigate crimes in real estate, said the agency’s report bolsters his case.

“Clearly Canada is not inspiring confidence internationally, and B.C. is clearly leading the pack in concerns around enforcing money laundering laws in real estate,” Eby said.

Dan Zitting, an executive with financial software firm ACL and expert on catching fraud through technology, said the report shows that Canadian law enforcement agencies must share money laundering intelligence more freely in order to improve enforcement.

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Jude Poyer

Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 142654Unread post Jude Poyer »

Clive Martin has some very keen insights on the triad mafia members.

Triad or Try-hard?By Clive Martin

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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 142662Unread post Blue Frost »

Living it up, but at what cost to others. I have a cousin that sells drugs, in, and out of prison his whole life. He was a smart kid, but took that road.
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 144631Unread post Gary Oak »

Finally the mystery has been solved how Chinese can afford to buy these houses in Canada when earning money legally there is so difficult. I don't have a problem with Canada absorbing all this dirty money from elsewhere but after we take the money we need to be far quicker to deport these criminals if they continue their criminality in Canada. Especially sworn enemies of Canada and Canadians [ FAN QING FU MING ] oath takers for example.

Chinese Gangs and Canadian Real Estate, The Odd Correlation
OCTOBER 26, 2016
RCMP-CSIS analysts made some pretty bold claims in their 1997 Sidewinder report. The statement that Chinese Triads are manipulating real estate is one of the boldest. Back then, it seemed absurd that organized crime would focus on Canadian real estate. 20 years later, we wanted to take a look at just how crazy that seems now.
While we don’t have the ability to tap people’s phones, and open emails (thanks Harper!), we do have a metric s**t-ton of data. Sifting through this, there’s a pretty interesting correlation between the crackdown on the triads, Macau casino revenues, Canadian real estate, and Canada’s banking loopholes.
What Are Triads?
Triads are a secret fraternal society that police forces claim engage in organized crime. They’re kind of like the Sicilian Mafia, but bigger and Chinese. It’s alleged they dominate illicit markets around the world. They’ve cornered the market on human smuggling, heroin, and money laundering. Recently they’ve transformed from a violent street gang, to favoring more discrete operations. They also engage in legit businesses like entertainment and property development.
They’re based out of Hong Kong, where membership is theoretically illegal. Despite this, two operations to crackdown on membership last year led to the arrest of 60,000 members. Yes, that number is correct. The kicker? It hardly put a dent in triad operations.
Triads In Canada
Triads operate in every large Chinese population, and Canada is no exception. In fact, Canada is home to some of the oldest, largest, and wealthiest triad families in the world. Most of their membership is concentrated between Toronto and Vancouver.
When Wo Shing Wo, the oldest triad branch, decided to set up a foreign syndicate in 1930, the location they chose was lucky Toronto. They were soon followed by other families like Sun Yee On (the largest syndicate), as well as other groups like 14K. At one point triads were so prominent in Toronto, theToronto Police Services (TPS) had an Asian Organized Crime Task Force. This unit became later known as the Gun & Gang Task force, since crime became so multi-ethnic in their city. Cute, right?
The triads in Vancouver go back over 100 years, and have close ties with Hong Kong branches. It’s estimated that they produce 70% of Canada’s meth, and export to the U.S. and Australia. Additionally, a US Congressional report titled Transnational Activities of Chinese Crime Organizations, notes that Vancouver is the “central distribution point [of heroin] for North American sales.” It’s gotten so bad the US Drug Enforcement Agency setup shop in Vancouver to assist with intel.
Vancouver’s triads have been making the news more often recently. Pressure from China led to an immigration hearing in 2013 for Vancouver-based Lai Tong Sang, who was revealed to be the leader of the Shui Fong triads in Macau. More recently, a Vancouver real estate agent was accused of threatening a local business owner for discouraging bidding wars.
“I’m telling you – people above me are from Harbin [China] gangs. Gangsters, right? You don’t want to be alive,” said a voice on a recording in Mandarin. The call was allegedly from a number connected to Layla Yang, a talented realtor that has a knack for selling multi-million dollar teardown properties. She’s so talented in fact, that this property in dispute was already sold by her earlier in the year. I really need to work on my sales skills.
China’s Crackdown On Triads
In 2013, President Xi Jingping was appointed to centralize power in China with a mandate to remove corruption. Since taking power he’s cracked down on thousands of politicians for collaborating with criminal groups, or embezzling money from the state. Even the mother of Vancouver mayor’s girlfriend was swept up in the crackdown.
20 years ago, Sidewinder alleged that China’s government was working with organized crime. Years later, under a new President, China is making moves to clean up the corruption. This recent clean up implies that individual politicians may have been collaborating with organized crime, and the Communist Party is now putting a stop to it. State media in China outright accuses Hong Kong’s chief-executive of using triads to manage the city. Well, even legislators in Hong Kong are saying triads are being used by the government of Hong Kong.
Chinese Gangs and Canadian Real Estate, The Odd Correlation - Hong Kong CEO Accused of Being A Triad
Pro-Beijing, state newspaper Sing Pao Daily. The frontpage featured a Photoshopped image of Leung Chun-ying (Hong Kong’s CEO) in jail for allegedly associating with triads.
The crackdown extended to Guangdong, Macau, and Hong Kong – the triad financial centers. Macau in particular is important, because their massive casino industry is uniquely structured. You see, in Macau, unlike the rest of the world, casino’s are dependent on junket operators. Junket operators are anyone from a sole proprietor to corporations. They attract VIPs and issue debt for them to use while they’re at the casinos. The casino only needs to vet the junket operators, because they’re the debt holders. If a VIP client defaults, it’s the junket operator that’s stuck footing the bill.
This unique system is opaque, protecting the identity of the VIP gambler. To complicate the issue more, VIP gambling occurs in separate rooms from the main casino. This ensures that the identity of the gambler is almost never known. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC)estimates that over 69% of gaming revenues come from these VIP rooms. In case you couldn’t guess, the USCC report notes these rooms are “dominated by Asian organized crime commonly referred to as triads.”
Macau is also dragging their feet on anti-money laundering schemes. The US State Department notesthey have no requirement to report large transactions. Additionally, there is no tracking of cross-border transfers of money. If you can evade China’s capital controls, you can have your cash in Macau almost worry free. If this sounds like a very effective way for criminals to launder money, that’s because it is. Well, it was until the recent government clean up. Did triads suddenly stop laundering money because the Chinese government said stop? Not likely.
Casino Revenues Dropped
A funny thing happened in Macau when China started arresting triads by the 10s of thousands. Casino revenues dropped despite the Chinese economy hitting hyperdrive. According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of Macao (DICJ), revenues from when the triad crackdowns began in late 2013 to 2015 are down 40%. This year the industry is on pace to drop another 8%. At the very least it’s a strange coincidence.
Global Property Markets
Curiously, once Triads lost the easiest way to launder money, property markets surged. Not in the US, just in the countries with generous tax loopholes, like Canada. In fact, two Canadian cities noted in Sidewinder had very interesting property movements – Vancouver, and Toronto.
The same year the crackdown in Macau occurred, BC real estate reversed direction. The dollar volume in BC housing had declined by 20% in 2012, but increased by 12% when the crackdown was announced the next year. Since then, it hasn’t booked a lower year, continuing to find more money.
Toronto saw a 12% drop in residential real estate dollar volume in 2012. The year of the crackdown, Toronto began to see a reversal and soared 20% in volume in 2013. It has continuously increased since, with 148% growth when comparing year to date vs all of 2015.
Macau Gaming Revenues Vs. BC Real Estate Dollar Volume
Macau Gaming Revenues Vs. BC Real Estate
Macau casino revenues vs. BC real estate sales. Probably worth noting that in late 2013, China began cracking down on triads.
Property Borrowing
Now the logical way to explain real estate in Toronto and BC is incomes went up and interest rates were slashed. Except, that’s not the case. Income has been stagnant in both Vancouver and Toronto, with many people making less than they did in previous years. This leaves market growth to capital imports – using immigration and foreign buyers.
Capital Controls
China has capital controls that restrict money leaving the country to US$50,000 per year, per person. Foreign buyers need a 35% down payment since they have no domestic income to verify. Now that BC’s average home is US$439,708, this makes the down payment $154,000 give or take. That’s more than 3x the amount of money that you can legally remove from China in a year.
If you did the math, you’re probably scratching your head. How do the 9% of foreign buyers in BC get enough for a downpayment from China? Easy, you don’t follow the rules. This is where smurfing comes in.
Canada Fails To Commit To New Anti-Corruption Measures, Real Estate Soars
A sign advertising no income verification for overseas mortgages in a CIBC branch. On an unrelated note, the RCMP-CSIS report Sidewinder mentions the bank multiple times. Picture used with permission from Garth Turner’s blog.
WTF Are Smurfs?
China’s rich foreign buyers engage in the same technique that drug dealers, human traffickers, and counterfeiters do, smurfing. Smurfing is when a large amount of capital is broken down into smaller, more discrete amounts. These smaller amounts don’t attract regulatory scrutiny, and sail through the banking system.
Basically, the money is broken down into US$50,000 increments. The money is split amongst your friends, family, or a shadow banker. They then transfer the money to you while you’re here. The person in Canada also needs to open multiple bank accounts to receive the money. This way the Chinese government doesn’t immediately realize what’s happening.
They repeat the process until they have a downpayment. They then repeat as many times as they need to bring the rest of their money over. A wrongful dismissal case at CIBC in 2014 shed a little light on this process. The defendant described this as a “practice CIBC supported”.
It’s important to note that this isn’t a process being used exclusively for illicit money. It’s the process that needs to be used for all money to leave China, and doesn’t violate any Canadian banking laws. Doesn’t matter how someone made that money, selling heroin or socks, it’s all the same to Canadian banks.
So, if you were a member of a criminal organization like the triads, who needed to launder money why wouldn’t you take this fairly simple and routine route instead of the more illegal one? There are already a number of legitimate immigrants coming to Canada, so it would be hardly noticeable if a handful of them happened to be triads. Well, until abandoned teardown houses started going for $3 million dollars. Then locals definitely started getting suspicious.
This Isn’t A Secret…Unless You’re Canadian
The lack of legal framework and resources to prevent money laundering in Canada is far from a secret. Canada is one of the world’s largest tax havens, and has banking laws that have a number of loopholes. While your everyday Canadian may not know this, both the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), and Transparency International have openly made statements.
APG has noted Canada’s questionable money laundering prevention techniques multiple times, including in their latest Mutual Evaluation Report (MER). The MER notes that Canadian authorities “may be underestimating the magnitude of key risks”, such as those “emanating from tax crimes and foreign corruption.” They further note that while Canada has an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime, a notable exception is legal professions other than British Columbia notaries. This is a “significant loophole in Canada’s AML framework”, and “in particular the real estate sector.”
Transparency International was perplexed by the promises Canada made earlier this year at the Anti-Corruption Summit in London. Apparently we sent a delegation that made a number of promises. Over the summer, a review committee researched the promises and noted they were “not new”. This begs the question, are the money laundering loopholes there through negligence or design?
How Accurate Was Sidewinder?
One of the reasons Sidewinder was shelved was the concept of Triads cooperating with members of the Chinese government seemed ludicrous. The concept of using “soft sectors” like real estate was too difficult a concept for the government to understand. That or they didn’t want to understand.
20 years laters, China’s government is focused on a crackdown for corruption within the ranks. They’re openly accusing (and arresting) bureaucrats for cooperating with organized crime to get work done. The crackdown coincided with a global capital flight, with tons of money flowing into the exact cities identified by RCMP-CSIS analysts. Additionally, international anti-money laundering organizations are identifying Canada as a safe-haven for laundering.
Now, Sidewinder was a smoking gun of a report. They made a case that they needed to investigate the circumstances.They definitely were onto something in this department.

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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 144635Unread post Blue Frost »

I wonder if I can pass as Chinese, and get them to buy me a home :teehe: john Wayne passed as Gengus Khan :rofl:
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Jude Poyer

Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 144821Unread post Jude Poyer »

The triads, Chinese police including Chinese overseas police and the Chinese governments of Taiwan and mainland CHina plus all top Chinese tycoons are all part of the same "borg"like entity. The triads and the Chinese government are also involved in creating larger fifth collumns by working together smuggling Chinese nationals into foreign lands and Canada is a favourite destination.

China set up crime web in Canada, report says
ANDREW MITROVICA AND JEFF SALLOT
Toronto and Ottawa — ANDREW MITROVICA and JEFF SALLOT The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, Apr. 29, 2000
ANDREW MITROVICA in Toronto JEFF SALLOT in Ottawa
The Chinese government and Chinese criminal gangs have been working together in drug smuggling, military espionage and other criminal activities that constitute a grave threat to Canadian national security, a secret study by federal law-enforcement and intelligence analysts says.
"In most respects, China is the greatest ongoing threat to Canada's national security and Canadian industry," the report says.
The study, titled Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada, was prepared in June, 1997, by as many as five analysts from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who worked for about two years using classified files from both agencies.
Copies of the original were destroyed or kept under lock and key until The Globe and Mail obtained one this week.
The study, known as Project Sidewinder, was considered by some CSIS managers to be so controversial that it was watered down and rewritten before a sanitized version was circulated to other government agencies last year, according to sources familiar with the history of the document.



The Sidewinder report describes an alliance among the Beijing government and its espionage services, Hong Kong tycoons and Chinese criminal gangs known as triads. The ultimate objectives included:
Winning influence with Canadian politicians and gaining control
Stealing high-tech secrets.
Laundering money.

Military spying.
Gaining control of Canadian companies in real estate, media and other sectors.
The RCMP and CSIS files revealed only "the very tip of the iceberg," the analysts concluded. They recommended expanding their joint task force to include a number of Government Departments, including officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Immigration Canada and Canada Customs.
That recommendation was never followed, shamefully hushed up. Instead, CSIS managers shelved the 1997 report and dismissed its conclusions as a rumour-laced conspiracy theory, an embarrassment to the Canadian establishment.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee, an independent watchdog body, investigating the Sidewinder Report censorship was suppressed because of political pressure from The Privy Council. The committee is expected to complete its investigation and release the results to Parliament within weeks.


Chinese embassy spokeswoman Qin Xin denied that her government is involved in espionage or criminal activities in Canada or poses any threat to Canadian national security. "These kinds of accusations are totally groundless," she said.
Spokesmen for the RCMP and CSIS would not comment on the conclusion of the study -- that China poses a grave threat to Canadian national security.
The SidewinderReport is still classified a secret and thus the RCMP can't talk about it, Mountie spokesman Sergeant Andre Guertin said.
CSIS spokesman Dan Lambert said the service does not discuss targets, so it will not confirm or deny whether it considers Chinese activities in Canada a security threat.
Mr. Lambert denied that the Sidewinder Report has since watered down and insisted there was no interference from the agency's political bosses.
Both the RCMP and CSIS subjected the 1997 draft to extensive review to make sure the final version, which was produced in 1999, could be credible.
CSIS agents familiar with the 1997 version, however, bristled at Mr. Lambert's version of events and noted that the Liberal government has courted trade and business opportunities with China since coming to office in 1993. Prime Minister Jean Chrétien plans to lead another trade mission to China this year.




The analysts wrote in the foreword of their 23-page study that "this report presents concrete facts, not just ideas or speculation."
The study notes that an earlier RCMP investigation, code-named Project Sunset, turned up evidence that an international food-services company based in Southern Ontario was involved in smuggling heroin into Canada from Hong Kong. The company's chairman was affiliated with a triad. Company managers met regularly with Chinese trade and military representatives in Canada.
The report also says Ontario Hydro believes it was the victim of theft of nuclear technology "by an individual of Chinese origin." The man sent hours worth of material by fax to a telephone number at a Chinese state science and technology commission.
In two other cases the report cited, employees of Chinese origin at Canadian high-tech companies stole proprietary information and sold it to China.
The report says Chinese intelligence services send agents to Canada as part of business and trade delegations.
Chinese intelligence services have set up "front companies" in Canada solely for espionage purposes, including theft of business secrets, the report says. The companies have regular contacts with the triad gangs.
Drawing on intelligence developed by other Western countries, the analysts say there is a well-established relationship between the Communist government in Beijing and the Hong Kong-based triads.
More than 200,000 Hong Kong residents immigrated to Canada during the 1990s. The report says the great majority of these immigrants "were legitimate, [but]Canadian authorities detected a significant presence of Chinese organized crime elements." Some eventually acquired Canadian citizenship.
The study notes that a former Canadian citizenship court judge faces 33 fraud and forgery charges in connection with immigration applications by Hong Kong residents. The RCMP laid the charges in May, 1997, but the case has yet to come to trial.
Some Hong Kong investors and mainland Chinese with ties to the Communist Party leadership and Chinese intelligence services came here using the "entrepreneur" and "investor" categories for Canadian immigration, the report says.
Canadian intelligence indicates that some of these people have worked with the Beijing regime to establish companies that are used as cover for criminal and espionage activities, the report says. "This country is an excellent place to invest in companies to launder the profits derived from criminal activities."
Some companies controlled by Hong Kong executives with ties to the Beijing regime have obtained federal government classified contracts, the report says.
The study also says more than 200 major firms in Canada are influenced or owned by triads, tycoons or Chinese national companies.
The Chinese government buys or sets up a legal company in Canada that in turn buys other companies, the report says, creating "an effective domino effect . . . that acts like a well-spun web or network of strategic points."
Initially, the study says, Chinese intelligence agencies acquired firms in so-called soft-sector firms that attracted little attention from CSIS, but then moved to take control of more sensitive companies in high-tech sectors.
Thus, China is quietly but systematically acquiring sensitive Canadian technology, including nuclear information, and is exerting undue influence over Canada's political environment by assuming control of key portions of Canadian industry, the report insists.
The study says there is Chinese "interference" in politics through political donations. It said the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating about 2,000 companies to determine whether they are being used by the Chinese to funnel illegal campaign contributions to U.S. political parties.
In Canada, the study says, the same pattern can be discerned. Companies believed to be controlled by Chinese interests contributed money to the federal Liberal and Progressive Conservative parties between 1991 and 1994.
Prominent former Canadian politicians have been named to boards of Chinese state-owned corporations, the report adds. The report did not identify the politicians by name.
Beijing has a particular interest in Chinese-language media in Canada, the study says. It notes that one Chinese-language cable TV outlet was the target of a takeover bid by a Hong Kong triad figure in 1992. The bid was withdrawn after federal officials notified the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission of the bidder's connections to organized crime.
A Chinese-language film-production studio in Ontario was owned by triad figures who were in regular contact with Chinese diplomats posted here, the report says.
The study notes various real-estate purchases, including hotels, in Toronto, Vancouver and other Canadian cities by the owner of a large south Asian gambling casino. The man was put on a Canadian police watch list 10 years ago because of his alleged involvement in organized crime.

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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 144833Unread post Blue Frost »

I can see it, it's in their interest to do so with the manpower, and funds they have at hand. Obama has allowed them in with land to build on, 50 square miles of it I believe as a so called business zone. :wacko:
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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 146081Unread post Gary Oak »

How crime bosses emigrate to Canada from Hong Kong

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Re: Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 154375Unread post Gary Oak »

I am glad that finally some reports have realised that the Chinese plunking down a million or two might be a bit suspicious. I am sure that the BC provincial government has turned a blind eye to this as though the money is from graft the millions or billions of dollars it raises does boost our economy. We have an industry of taking Asia's dirty money. It is a shame that many nice neighbourhoods are now getting flooded with wealthy criminals.

Vancouver’s real estate is ‘fuelled by a money laundering bubble’:
Market analyst

There is no denying that the real estate market in Vancouver is red hot – prices have been rising with no end in sight.
But one market analyst thinks we will see the bubble burst.
Marc Cohodes used to run one of the largest hedge funds on Wall Street. Now, he’s eyeing the Canadian housing market.

“Short selling in stocks is basically, you borrow shares that other people own and you sell them,” said Cohodes. “If I was in the cattle business and I thought the price of cows were going to go down, I would sell all my cows, I would borrow some of your cows, I would sell them with the promise to buy them back and return them to you some day, and if they went down I would make, and if they went up and I got tired of my position, I would lose.”
Speaking on Global BC News Morning, Cohodes made it clear that he has no personal stake in the Vancouver real estate market.
Cohodes said he wants to speak out about the housing market in Vancouver because he feels strongly “people are being taken advantage of.”
Recent headlines of real estate deals in Vancouver include a 7,200-square-foot heritage mansion for sale in Vancouver’s Shaughnessy neighbourhood for $21 million and a a $2.398-million price tag for a ‘fixer-upper’ in the Point Grey neighbourhood.
The Greater Vancouver real estate board says the benchmark price of a detached home in Vancouver hit $1.56 million in June, which is up 38.7 per cent in one year.
“I think it’s a money laundering-induced market,” said Cohodes. “Where the local politicians, or the BC Liberals, are kept or in cahoots with the real estate brokers, developers, lawyers, that angle. And they have sought Chinese money to keep the market propped up and it won’t last.”
“China has capital controls on and Vancouver has become the money laundering mecca of either the world or North America and something is going to change and change drastically.”
READ MORE: B.C. NDP calls for task force to fight tax fraud, money laundering in real estate
Tom Davidoff, an economist at UBC’s Sauder School of Business, said while he agrees with Cohodes that overseas capitalism is an important driver of our market, “whether there is anything illegal going on, and whether we should think of that as a bubble or a trend, I think are more challenging questions to answer.”
Cohodes said if the provincial government doesn’t step in to change the market, they’re going to be voted out.
“This is sheer insanity,” he said. “What’s going on is you’re pricing local, hardworking people out of the market and as I’ve said before, the housing market in Vancouver resembles the Vancouver stock exchange and penny stocks many years ago and that didn’t end well at all.”
Davidoff said if something isn’t done, “Vancouver is going to become a playground for the rich.”
WATCH: Is there a real estate bubble?

Finance Minister Mike de Jong has said he does not believe Vancouver is in a real estate bubble, to which Cohodes said “he’s full of more crap than a Christmas turkey.”
“The market is ridiculously high and slippery Christy Clark goes and takes real estate people over to China.”
READ MORE: Concerns raised over ‘Panda Bonds’ issued by B.C. government
“They have the records,” said Cohodes,” they just don’t want people to really know or they don’t want people to know the truth.”
In a statement to Global News, de Jong said:
We continue to work with both local governments and the federal government to address issues in Vancouver’s real estate sector, particularly to help bring new supply of homes to the market at affordable prices, and acting on concerns about regulation and enforcement. The premier announced last week that the province will end self-regulation of the real estate industry, and further steps aimed at helping make homes more affordable for the middle class will follow in the near future.
Cohodes said he has solutions to fix what the “issues are” but B.C. politicians don’t want to “take the medicine because their livelihoods depend on this.”
According to Cohodes, people who buy in this market will only become “debt servants for the rest of their lives.” He said when Vancouver’s market does tank or collapse, people are going to lose a generation of savings and equity.
“It’s fueled by a money laundering bubble that politicians don’t want to end.”
“At some point, bubbles burst.”
Michael Levy of Border Gold Corp. disagrees, saying while a bubble can be anything that is overvalued, we can just let the air out and it doesn’t have to burst.
“That would be a correction in the market that would take place, but as Mr. Cohodes said, I do not believe we are in the kind of bubble that is going to burst.”
“To say that markets are going to go down 50 to 80 per cent is absolutely irresponsible and I feel that his statements are doing nothing but inflaming the issues that are going on here, but not being helpful at all,” added Levy.
WATCH: Michael Levy reacts to Marc Cohodes’ comments:

He said there needs to be more stringent regulation about who can buy in the market, what kind of financial stability they have and he agrees about adding a tax on foreign home ownership.
Levy did agree the real estate market is a “cash cow for the provincial government because of the property transfer tax,” but he thinks the government is going to have to act soon to calm the public’s fears they are being priced out of the Vancouver market.
However, he does not necessarily think a tax is the best way to go.
“I think there are ways to go about this but I don’t think you have to slam the door and to start to think to put a huge tax in place, I just want to remind the viewers that in 1974 that’s what the provincial government did in Ontario,” said Levy. “They put a 50 per cent tax on properties that people bought for speculation and they tanked the real estate market.”
“It absolutely fell apart, so I say, be careful what you wish for.”

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Chinese Triads In The West

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What Henry Yu doesn't ever mention is that the Chinese triads , Chinese military, Chinese espionage , Chinese business, Chinese police including Chinese Canadian police that are tong members etc... are united and have sworn their loyalty to each other in their FAN QING FU MING activities. Chinese land owned by Chinese is considered Chinese territory. Many Chinese consider Richmond BC as Chinese and not Canadian as many Chinese consider Singapore as being a Chinese city even though the population of Singapore is only 40%.

CSIS Warns Of Chinese Influence On Canadian Real Estate…20 Years Ago

We were warned then by Richard Fadden/CSIS

Remember when the RCMP and CSIS accused the Chinese government of purchasing real estate in Canadian urban centers as a method of threatening Canada? No? That’s because the recommendations from a former classified program called Sidewinder was abandoned. All documents were ordered destroyed, and buried in 1997 by the Liberal government. Turns out we were as anxious to build ties with China then as we are now. Despite our national spy services advising the government that, well…this would happen to real estate.

In a report titled Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada, an RCMP-CSIS joint task force allege that the Chinese government is using legal and legitimate businesses to gain control over the economic levers of Canada. They also warn that the “Canadian economy is concentrated in three or four large urban centres.” Consequently, “[Canada] is more vulnerable [than other countries] because of the many legislative loopholes governing finance and the concentration of financial power in the hands of few”.

20 years ago, when people thought Barbie Girl was great music, this seemed like our top spies were spinning a far-fetched conspiracy theory. Analysts even referenced how far fetched it seemed in the actual document. They preface the report with “this document does not present theories but indicators of a multifaceted threat to Canada’s national security based on concrete facts drawn from the databanks of the two agencies involved [the RCMP and CSIS].”

The report also warns that “if you look at a single individual, the threat does not seem to be there, but because of their associations and their alliances with China, the facts analyzed lead us to believe that a gain of influence is the object of a concerted plan and that could constitute a threat to Canada.” Reading the details today, these ideas seem less far-fetched than ever.


“China remains one of the greatest ongoing threats to Canada’s national security and Canadian industry.”

— Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada

Chinese Billionaires, Gangsters, And Spies

Canada’s top spy agencies claimed that they have identified distinct groups of people that are “working with the Chinese government to gain influence through some of their ‘financial ventures’ in Canada.” They further allege that the Chinese government is using tycoons, triads, and spies to “attain influence over the economic levers and prominent Canadian figures”.

Chinese-Canadian Tycoons
Well known (and loved) Chinese-Canadian business tycoons are said to be a threat. Stanley Ho (Casino barron, former owner of Ramada), and Li Ka-shing (founder of Concord Pacific) are both named in the report for their aggressive investments in Canadian real estate, and financial institutions. At one point they estimate that Li Ka-shing and his son owned at least ⅓-⅙ of downtown Vancouver at the time. The report also notes the recent buy of 18 hectares by the CN Tower, which is over 1% of downtown Toronto.

The report claims that the two were selected by Beijing to be the unofficial leaders of Hong Kong after the departure of the British. While Sidewinder doesn’t explain why they’re concerned, the American government lays it out on the table. The US government wrote in a report that the RCMP identified Ho as having links to Kung Lok, a branch of the Triads.

Canadian analysts don’t quite say why Li Ka-shing is on their radar. They do infer that his acquisition and interest in Canadian banks is worrisome, but not why. When China launched CITIC, a state-owned investment firm, Li Ka-shing was appointed to the first board of directors. Additionally the U.S. Embassy in Beijing has claimed Li Ka-shing’s Hutchinson Whampoa is “financing or serving as a conduit for communist China’s military”. So maybe that’s it?

Hong Kong’s Triads
The report also alleges that Triads have developed large businesses in Canada, both legitimate and not-so-much. For those that don’t know, the Triads are one of the largest organized crime groups in the world. They have significant operations in Canada, mostly around Vancouver and Toronto. They’re discreet and intelligent, not street goons. Police forces around the world allege they do everything, from drug trafficking to smurfing. Although they do have much more legitimate operations, like making movies and real estate development.

The report claims Beijing is giving them a free pass in exchange for sharing influence. RCMP-CSIS analysts also claim they have identified triads, amongst legitimate immigrants, using “investor” and “entrepreneur visas” to come to Canada. They note that Canada is an “excellent place to invest in companies to launder the profits derived from criminal activities while securing a portion of their assets outside of Hong Kong and obtaining a Canadian passport.” Back then they must’ve been unaware that Canada is an excellent place to launder any money.

Chinese Spies
The report also accuses the Chinese Intelligence Service (ChIS) of using specialists, students, and shell companies to “pursue their acquisition of economic intelligence.” They additionally claim that ChIS is attempting to position themselves in a way in which they can impact the management of the country.

Real Estate, Banking, And Technology

Sure, we watch television. We know spies are sent around the world to gather military and economic secrets. What’s interesting in this report is something that’s been undiscussed for 20 years. RCMP-CSIS analysts claim China is after “soft” sectors, such as “real estate, hotels, transportation, oil companies, and travel agencies”.

Activity in “soft” sectors doesn’t attract the scrutiny of larger, regulated industries. A look at Lenovo’s rejected bid for handset maker Blackberry vs. Anbang’s successful bid for the Bentall Centre in Vancouver is an example of this. The former received great scrutiny because it was technology, the latter not so much. The analysts further noted that investments in commercial sectors “at first site do not involve any security risks and did not attract the attention of the Canadian services responsible for security.”

They go on to say “the scale of their venture or investments has now made them some of the most important figures present in the major centres [of Canada], and their decisions to invest in one place or another are not a matter of indifference to anyone. Such projects are seen by the local or national business community as a ‘favour’ or a ‘chance’ not to be missed”. Sounds vaguely familiar.

Influence In Politics

The report notes that they’re not interested in Canada because of our sweet maple booty. It’s because of our political influence. They allege that the 3 groups of people are attempting to control our political base. According to the report, there’s two methods in which they use – donations and constituency.

“The triads, the tycoons, and ChIS have learned the quick way to gain influence is to provide finance to the main political parties. Most of the companies identified in this research have contributed, sometimes several tens of thousands of dollars, to the two traditional parties, that is, the Liberal and Progressive-Conservative Parties.”

Those sentences are concerning for two reasons: First, terrible grammar. Second, politicians feel a sense of duty to repay political donors. At the very least, they often grant them favours to keep the money flowing for campaigning. We restrict foreign donations to our political parties for this reason. Unfortunately, what happens when “domestic” companies make donations to help foreign influence? We can’t do a whole lot about that, now can we?


“The triads, the tycoons, and ChIS have learned the quick way to gain influence is to provide finance to the main political parties. Most of the companies identified in this research have contributed, sometimes several tens of thousands of dollars, to the two traditional parties, that is, the Liberal and Progressive-Conservative Parties.”

Leveraging Legitimate Desire

No, the report isn’t racist and thinks the whole country should be on edge with all Chinese people. In fact, the analysts say the “great majority” of Chinese immigrants are “legitimate”. They allege that spies and triads are hiding amongst the ranks of regular families. Despite this, the report claims “Canadian authorities detected a significant presence of Chinese organized crime” using Canada’s generous immigration schemes.

Notably present in the table of contents but not included in the draft is a section on Canadian schools. A copy hosted by retired police officer Leo Knight has a section called “University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario”. The actual information was redacted unfortunately. I guess we’ll never know what mysteries our universities and student visas contain.

It’s Probably Nothing…Sidewinder Gets Disbanded

Operation Sidewinder was abruptly disbanded before the document was leaked. Apparently all copies were ordered destroyed, and the “rest were lost”. No one’s quite sure who ordered the documents destroyed. It’s believed the project died under pressure from within and outside the agencies.

The internal struggle reads like an argument between kids, then covered up by the oldest one. Senior RCMP officials say CSIS officials tried to alter information and delete materials in ways that “undermined the report’s integrity”. CSIS claims the report did not meet the analytical rigour. The Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC) did a final investigation into the matter, and claimed the report was “deeply flawed”. They did determine that the final draft was up to standard, but it did not present a credible threat.

They also disclosed in a second report that documents were improperly handled. One agent in Toronto had his car broken into, and files stolen. They concluded “petty thieves intent on supporting a drug habit” committed the crime. They also say the classified documents stolen were “unread”, disposed of in a dumpster, and emptied at a landfill site…but they were never recovered. Which is a lot of details considering they have no idea what happened after the burglary.

Political Response To Sidewinder

As you can guess, this report didn’t sit well with anyone in government. It alleges a powerful country is conducting a spy mission, using influential Canadians. They even scrutinized a company whose board Prime Minister Chretien’s son-in-law sat on. The company was China’s state-run CITIC, but still. Right or wrong, it wasn’t going to sit well.

The whole report went mostly silent, with a few exceptions. Once, when RCMP officers involved filed an obstruction-of-justice complaint. They alleged senior officers covered up their investigation. Another time in Parliament, when they noted that whistleblowers are punished in Canada. They used two of the CSIS agents that had their careers ruined shortly after Sidewinder as an example.

Most notable was in 2010, when then CSIS director Richard Fadden mentioned it in a CBC interview. He alleged two BC cabinet ministers are under the influence of foreign governments, but didn’t substantiate the claims. Afterall, it’s not like Vancouver’s politicians are flying China’s flag over city hall or anything. Wait, that happened? That’s six kinds of weird. Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said at the time “it’s frustrating and unfortunate that local elected officials in BC had aspirations cast upon them without any justification”. Yeah, that Gregor.

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Chinese Triads In The West

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One thing that professor Henry Yu neglects to say whenever he is making a speech on how great the massive influx is for Canada and Canadians is that these money launderers are obviously criminals and that they are not doing this alone but also belong to networks and they are all FAN QING FU MING swornbrothers. Henry Yu also neglects to mention that when the Chinese percentage of the population gets large enough that they start showing how they feel about the host nations people as they are doing in Richmond.

Canada’s doors are ‘wide open’ for criminals to launder money in real estate: report

Give us your criminal, your corrupt, your anonymous masses.
It’s a message that Canada is sending to the world with its “doors wide open” approach to money laundering in real estate, says a new report by Transparency International (TI), a Berlin-based organization that works to stop corruption around the world.

The report looked at anti-money laundering practices in four countries — Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.
It evaluated these countries by taking 10 areas where “legal loopholes or weak implementation/enforcement enable the corrupt and other criminals to launder money through the real estate sector.”
Canada has deficiencies in four of those areas — fewer than Australia (10 out of 10) and the U.S. (nine out of 10), but more than in the U.K. (one out of 10).
READ MORE: B.C. foreign buyers tax really did yank down Vancouver home prices: BMO
One of the biggest reasons why it’s easy for illicit money to enter Canadian real estate is that it’s not difficult to hide the identities of people who buy homes in the first place.
Canadian law does not require non-financial professionals doing real estate deals to “identify beneficial owners when conducting due diligence on customers.”
Say a real estate agent is closing a deal on a property. The agent may be working with a customer on behalf of what’s known as a “beneficial owner.”

The beneficial owner is someone who receives the benefits of ownership, even if someone else’s name is on the title.
Agents, lawyers, notaries or accountants don’t have to identify a beneficial owner as part of a due diligence process; this is also true in the U.S. and Australia.
There are also some key omissions when it comes to who’s required to carry out due diligence in the first place.
READ MORE: Homes under $1 million in Vancouver are virtually extinct
In Canada, you have to do due diligence or submit suspicious or large cash transaction reports if you’re  a real estate agent, a broker, a developer or an accountant.
You don’t have to do that if you’re a lawyer, a law firm or a notary from Quebec.
“Given their roles in real estate closings, this is a major loophole,” the report said.
Lawyers used to have to do this under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act (PCMLTFA).
But that requirement was lifted after the Supreme Court of Canada decided that it would “interfere with the lawyer’s duty to keep client information confidential,” the report said.
READ MORE: Vancouver’s real estate market will keep falling: BCREA
The rules around foreign companies also provide an opportunity for funds to enter Canada without many checks.
In Canada, foreign companies can buy property without providing any information about their real owners or their corporate structure.
The only info that’s recorded in a registry is the title holder — and even that can just be a trust or a shell company.

Stronger anti-money laundering rules could be particularly useful in a place like Greater Vancouver, where governments can’t identify the owners of almost half of the region’s 100 most valuable homes, according to a previous TI report.
The city has also been the focus of efforts by the Chinese government to recover the proceeds of corruption, a report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) said last year.
“There are cases of Chinese officials laundering the proceeds of crime through the real estate sector,” the FATF report said.
“The Chinese government has listed Canada as a country that it wishes to target for recovering the proceeds of Chinese corruption. Canada may be particularly vulnerable to such laundering, as there is no extradition treaty with China.”
Transparency International offered a number of recommendations to strengthen rules around money-laundering in real estate.
They include requiring “all reporting entities involved in real estate transactions” to carry out due diligence on their customers.
READ MORE: These Vancouver homeowners made over $1M last year by doing nothing
“These would include real estate agents and other relevant individuals or entities, such as lawyers and lawforms, accounts, notaries, mortgage lenders and other corporate service providers who engage in the buying and selling of real estate,” the report said.
Governments should also make rules that require real estate agents or others involved in home transactions to identify and keep records on beneficial owners, it said.

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Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 156966Unread post Blue Frost »

I wouldn't want some of the corruption, and politics, but i would welcome a lot of the Chinese here being they are productive people, and most have a good work ethic unlike many others.
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Chinese Triads In The West

Post: # 157205Unread post Gary Oak »

Chinese know but never tell any enemies of Chinese taking over their country [ host nation populations ] that the tongs that all top triads are members of are sworn FAN QING FU MING brothers with Chinese espionage, Chinese military including agents in Canada's military , Chinese police including tong members in Canadians police forces, top Chinese politicians including Canadian Chinese politicians, top Chinese businessmen and businesswomen etc...
Canada is taking in billions in dirty money boosting our economy however we are letting in a huge fifth column of sworn enemies of Canada and Canadians who want to take over and exploit Canada for China's gain along with these billions of $$$.

Chinese Gangs And Canadian Real Estate, The Odd Correlation

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RCMP-CSIS analysts made some pretty bold claims in their 1997 Sidewinder report. The statement that Chinese Triads are manipulating real estate is one of the boldest. Back then, it seemed absurd that organized crime would focus on Canadian real estate. 20 years later, we wanted to take a look at just how crazy that seems now.
While we don’t have the ability to tap people’s phones, and open emails (thanks Harper!), we do have a metric s**t-ton of data. Sifting through this, there’s a pretty interesting correlation between  the crackdown on the triads, Macau casino revenues, Canadian real estate, and Canada’s banking loopholes.
What Are Triads?
Triads are a secret fraternal society that police forces claim engage in organized crime. They’re kind of like the Sicilian Mafia, but bigger and Chinese. It’s alleged they dominate illicit markets around the world. They’ve cornered the market on human smuggling, heroin, and money laundering. Recently they’ve transformed from a violent street gang, to favoring more discrete operations. They also engage in legit businesses like entertainment and property development.
They’re based out of Hong Kong, where membership is theoretically illegal. Despite this, two operations to crackdown on membership last year led to the arrest of 60,000 members. Yes, that number is correct. The kicker? It hardly put a dent in triad operations.
Triads In Canada
Triads operate in every large Chinese population, and Canada is no exception. In fact, Canada is home to some of the oldest, largest, and wealthiest triad families in the world. Most of their membership is concentrated between Toronto and Vancouver.
When Wo Shing Wo, the oldest triad branch, decided to set up a foreign syndicate in 1930, the location they chose was lucky Toronto. They were soon followed by other families like Sun Yee On (the largest syndicate), as well as other groups like 14K. At one point triads were so prominent in Toronto, theToronto Police Services (TPS) had an Asian Organized Crime Task Force. This unit became later known as the Gun & Gang Task force, since crime became so multi-ethnic in their city. Cute, right?
The triads in Vancouver go back over 100 years, and have close ties with Hong Kong branches. It’s estimated that they produce 70% of Canada’s meth, and export to the U.S. and Australia. Additionally, a US Congressional report titled Transnational Activities of Chinese Crime Organizations, notes that Vancouver is the “central distribution point [of heroin] for North American sales.” It’s gotten so bad the US Drug Enforcement Agency setup shop in Vancouver to assist with intel.
Vancouver’s triads have been making the news more often recently. Pressure from China led to an immigration hearing in 2013 for Vancouver-based Lai Tong Sang, who was revealed to be the leader of the Shui Fong triads in Macau. More recently, a Vancouver real estate agent was accused of threatening a local business owner for discouraging bidding wars.
“I’m telling you – people above me are from Harbin [China] gangs. Gangsters, right? You don’t want to be alive,” said a voice on a recording in Mandarin. The call was allegedly from a number connected to Layla Yang, a talented realtor that has a knack for selling multi-million dollar teardown properties. She’s so talented in fact, that this property in dispute was already sold by her earlier in the year. I really need to work on my sales skills.
China’s Crackdown On Triads
In 2013, President Xi Jingping was appointed to centralize power in China with a mandate to remove corruption. Since taking power he’s cracked down on thousands of politicians for collaborating with criminal groups, or embezzling money from the state. Even the mother of Vancouver mayor’s girlfriend was swept up in the crackdown.
20 years ago, Sidewinder alleged that China’s government was working with organized crime. Years later, under a new President, China is making moves to clean up the corruption. This recent clean up implies that individual politicians may have been collaborating with organized crime, and the Communist Party is now putting a stop to it. Pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Pao recently accused Hong Kong’s chief-executive of using triads to manage the city. Heck, even legislators in Hong Kong are saying triads are being used by the government of Hong Kong.


Pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Pao Daily. The frontpage featured a Photoshopped image of Leung Chun-ying (Hong Kong’s CEO) in jail for allegedly associating with triads.

The crackdown extended to Guangdong, Macau, and Hong Kong – the triad financial centers. Macau in particular is important, because their massive casino industry is uniquely structured. You see, in Macau, unlike the rest of the world, casino’s are dependent on junket operators. Junket operators are anyone from a sole proprietor to corporations. They attract VIPs and issue debt for them to use while they’re at the casinos. The casino only needs to vet the junket operators, because they’re the debt holders. If a VIP client defaults, it’s the junket operator that’s stuck footing the bill.
This unique system is opaque, protecting the identity of the VIP gambler. To complicate the issue more, VIP gambling occurs in separate rooms from the main casino. This ensures that the identity of the gambler is almost never known. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC)estimates that over 69% of gaming revenues come from these VIP rooms. In case you couldn’t guess, the USCC report notes these rooms are “dominated by Asian organized crime commonly referred to as triads.”
Macau is also dragging their feet on anti-money laundering schemes. The US State Department notesthey have no requirement to report large transactions. Additionally, there is no tracking of cross-border transfers of money. If you can evade China’s capital controls, you can have your cash in Macau almost worry free. If this sounds like a very effective way for criminals to launder money, that’s because it is. Well, it was until the recent government clean up. Did triads suddenly stop laundering money because the Chinese government said stop? Not likely.
Casino Revenues Dropped
A funny thing happened in Macau when China started arresting triads by the 10s of thousands. Casino revenues dropped despite the Chinese economy hitting hyperdrive. According to the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau of Macao (DICJ), revenues from when the triad crackdowns began in late 2013 to 2015 are down 40%. This year the industry is on pace to drop another 8%. At the very least it’s a strange coincidence.
Global Property Markets
Curiously, once Triads lost the easiest way to launder money, property markets surged. Not in the US, just in the countries with generous tax loopholes, like Canada. In fact, two Canadian cities noted in Sidewinder had very interesting property movements – Vancouver, and Toronto.
The same year the crackdown in Macau occurred, BC real estate reversed direction. The dollar volume in BC housing had declined by 20% in 2012, but increased by 12% when the crackdown was announced the next year. Since then, it hasn’t booked a lower year, continuing to find more money.
Toronto saw a 12% drop in residential real estate dollar volume in 2012. The year of the crackdown, Toronto began to see a reversal and soared 20% in volume in 2013. It has continuously increased since, with 148% growth when comparing year to date vs all of 2015.
Macau Gaming Revenues Vs. BC Real Estate Dollar Volume

Macau casino revenues vs. BC real estate sales. Probably worth noting that in late 2013, China began cracking down on triads.
Property Borrowing
Now the logical way to explain real estate in Toronto and BC is incomes went up and interest rates were slashed. Except, that’s not the case. Income has been stagnant in both Vancouver and Toronto, with many people making less than they did in previous years. This leaves market growth to capital imports – using immigration and foreign buyers.
Capital Controls
China has capital controls that restrict money leaving the country to US$50,000 per year, per person. Foreign buyers need a 35% down payment since they have no domestic income to verify. Now that BC’s average home is US$439,708, this makes the down payment $154,000 give or take. That’s more than 3x the amount of money that you can legally remove from China in a year.
If you did the math, you’re probably scratching your head. How do the 9% of foreign buyers in BC get enough for a downpayment from China? Easy, you don’t follow the rules. This is where smurfing comes in.

A sign advertising no income verification for overseas mortgages in a CIBC branch. On an unrelated note, the RCMP-CSIS report Sidewinder mentions the bank multiple times. Picture used with permission from Garth Turner’s blog.

WTF Are Smurfs?
China’s rich foreign buyers engage in the same technique that drug dealers, human traffickers, and counterfeiters do, smurfing. Smurfing is when a large amount of capital is broken down into smaller, more discrete amounts. These smaller amounts don’t attract regulatory scrutiny, and sail through the banking system.
Basically, the money is broken down into US$50,000 increments. The money is split amongst your friends, family, or a shadow banker. They then transfer the money to you while you’re here. The person in Canada also needs to open multiple bank accounts to receive the money. This way the Chinese government doesn’t immediately realize what’s happening.
They repeat the process until they have a downpayment. They then repeat as many times as they need to bring the rest of their money over. A wrongful dismissal case at CIBC in 2014 shed a little light on this process. The defendant described this as a “practice CIBC supported”.
It’s important to note that this isn’t a process being used exclusively for illicit money. It’s the process that needs to be used for all money to leave China, and doesn’t violate any Canadian banking laws. Doesn’t matter how someone made that money, selling heroin or socks, it’s all the same to Canadian banks.
So, if you were a member of a criminal organization like the triads, who needed to launder money why wouldn’t you take this fairly simple and routine route instead of the more illegal one? There are already a number of legitimate immigrants coming to Canada, so it would be hardly noticeable if a handful of them happened to be triads. Well, until abandoned teardown houses started going for $3 million dollars. Then locals definitely started getting suspicious.
This Isn’t A Secret…Unless You’re Canadian
The lack of legal framework and resources to prevent money laundering in Canada is far from a secret. Canada is one of the world’s largest tax havens, and has banking laws that have a number of loopholes. While your everyday Canadian may not know this, both the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG), and Transparency International have openly made statements.
APG has noted Canada’s questionable money laundering prevention techniques multiple times, including in their latest Mutual Evaluation Report (MER). The MER notes that Canadian authorities “may be underestimating the magnitude of key risks”, such as those “emanating from tax crimes and foreign corruption.” They further note that while Canada has an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regime, a notable exception is legal professions other than British Columbia notaries. This is a “significant loophole in Canada’s AML framework”, and “in particular the real estate sector.”
Transparency International was perplexed by the promises Canada made earlier this year at the Anti-Corruption Summit in London. Apparently we sent a delegation that made a number of promises. Over the summer, a review committee researched the promises and noted they were “not new”. This begs the question, are the money laundering loopholes there through negligence or design?
How Accurate Was Sidewinder?
One of the reasons Sidewinder was shelved was the concept of Triads cooperating with members of the Chinese government seemed ludicrous. The concept of using “soft sectors” like real estate was too difficult a concept for the government to understand. That or they didn’t want to understand.
20 years laters, China’s government is focused on a crackdown for corruption within the ranks. They’re openly accusing (and arresting) bureaucrats for cooperating with organized crime to get work done. The crackdown coincided with a global capital flight, with tons of money flowing into the exact cities identified by RCMP-CSIS analysts. Additionally, international anti-money laundering organizations are identifying Canada as a safe-haven for laundering.
Now, Sidewinder wasn’t a smoking gun of a report. They were making a case that they needed to investigate the circumstances. Seems like they might have been onto something in this department. What do you think?
Update Jan 24, 2016: Sin Pao was incorrectly as state-media, which it is not. They’re just pro-Beijing. 
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