Ian Mulgrew: B.C. should get out of gaming, former attorney general says

OPINION: “I think it’s really important to understand…gaming and government have had a difficult relationship for many years.”

Former B.C. Lottery Corp. chairman and ex-cabinet minister Bud Smith was (expletive deleted) mad about the money-laundering debate and Attorney General David Eby’s response.

He fumed that the Crown corporation’s staff had been vilified, one viciously verbally assaulted on the street, a director berated at Thanksgiving dinner, the rest “having the bejesus kicked out of them” because of a lie — that BCLC was wilfully blind to dirty money in casinos.

“I’m going to be measured in what I say because, frankly, it’s one of the assertions that I and others have had to live with. And to not overstate it — it pisses me off in the extreme,” Smith told the inquiry into money laundering this week.

“It is an obnoxiously untrue statement. … It was really, really unsettling.”

He remained troubled.

“There was a narrative developed … it’s now received wisdom in B.C. by the overwhelming majority of the population that this took place. It’s not correct. No one, zero, as in nada, asked or directed or suggested or gave a wink or a nod or a nudge with their elbow or anything else that we should stand by or stand down from our responsibilities and increase revenue to government. Ever.”

Ian Mulgrew: Money-laundering report flayed by BCLC exec

Peter German did not do “a sufficient data analysis to fully understand the anti-money-laundering measures” in casinos, inquiry hears.

A third senior B.C. Lottery Corp. executive has poured scorn on consultant Peter German’s Dirty Money report at the Inquiry into Money Laundering.

Brad Desmarais, BCLC’s chief operating officer and a vice-president, said he was “shocked” and considered the report on massive amounts of cash being cleaned in B.C. casinos incredibly unfair and erroneous, partly because the incidence of suspicious cash transactions had “fallen off a cliff” between 2015 and 2017.

“There were a lot of challenges that arose out of that piece of work, and government’s blind acceptance of the recommendations was also a blow, ” Desmarais told the one-man commission triggered by German’s findings.

The 33-year-veteran of major crime investigations, many international, Desmarais said he believed there was a difference between money-laundering and proceeds of crime being spent by unwitting gamblers.

“We were constrained in responding to the criticisms of Dr. German’s report as well as some of the erroneous media stories that began to circulate about that time that caused morale to plummet in the organization and quite frankly our — I think with (Jim) Lightbody, myself and (Rob) Kroeker — our standing with the employees, because they would see these obviously false news reports and occasionally erroneous reports or comments from various members of government. They were looking to us to make it right. And we felt we couldn’t.”