Daryl Tottenham, the Chief of the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s anti-money laundering programs, has admitted to being concerned and surprised about the response from police agencies over his reports of illegal money in casinos.
According to The Star, on Tuesday, Tottenham, a former officer of the New Westminster Police Department, told BC’s inquiry into money laundering he gave several law enforcement agencies information about the large amounts of suspicious cash circulating at casinos, but he saw little reaction.
He added the lottery provided information to police about the volumes of suspicious cash at BC’s casinos, as well as details regarding suspected individuals and a group associated with the money.
Tottenham said: “It was very concerning to me. I was quite surprised we weren’t getting any response back from law enforcement about taking this any further.”
Tottenham mentioned the lottery approached Fintrac, Canada’s national financial intelligence agency, BC’s Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch, the RCMP and local law enforcement agencies about the situation.
He stated: “We kind of went down that road in terms of starting to, I’m going to say, shop out a project to law enforcement and trying to make a connection to get somebody from law enforcement to engage on a project or a target. It was going out to a number of agencies that have law enforcement capabilities.”
The inquiry heard that one casino patron cashed in a total of $900,000 in one day. The patron first bought $450,000 worth of casino chips with $20 bills and then purchased $450,000 worth of chips with bills ranging from $10 to $100 later that day.
The former police officer said he received no official reaction from police that any investigations into suspicious cash at casinos were underway.
Tottenham agreed with federal government lawyer Olivia French that knowledge of ongoing police investigations is a closely guarded secret, but he expected to see some indication of police activity as an experienced investigator.
He said: “From my perspective, I wasn’t seeing any activity based on my years of running strike teams and doing those kinds of projects. I was seeing absolutely nothing in that regard.”
Former RCMP officer Fred Pinnock testified last week that a BC government cabinet minister told him in 2009 that the province’s then gaming minister was aware of organized crime at casinos, but was more focused on the money being generated.
The BC government launched a public inquiry after reports detailed how illegal cash was helping fuel the province’s real estate, luxury vehicle and gambling sectors.
The province commissioned three reports that said hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty money flowed through those businesses.