Less than two weeks after the RCMP launched a series of raids in 2015 during an investigation into B.C.’s largest money laundering case, the spouse of a major police target sold a house on Fairbrook Crescent in Richmond.
The Fairbrook Crescent house is among 20 Lower Mainland properties valued at more than $43 million that were linked to those accused of using proceeds of crime to buy property and other assets. They were targets of E-Pirate and related police probes into allegations of drug trafficking, illegal gambling and money laundering, according to a Postmedia News analysis of hundreds of pages of court records and property documents.
Assets are often put in family members’ names — even jointly — to make them harder to seize as proceeds-of-crime, experts say. Poitevin, like other financial crime experts, said it’s difficult to figure out how much money is being laundered — let alone in real estate. But money laundering is a big problem globally and can have a huge effect on local economies, he said.
Jin, a primary target of the E-Pirate investigation, is alleged to have run illegal gambling houses in Richmond and used Silver International to launder money. He didn’t put property in his own name. Documents filed in court allege he used the Fairbrook Crescent house, in his spouse’s name, to launder money by purchasing it or paying deposits.
Postmedia made attempts to contact Jin and others in his family through one of his lawyers but was unsuccessful.