Feds Moving Forward on Creating Agency to Tackle Financial Crimes Such as Money Laundering, Fraud

Cash seized by police during a bust is displayed at RCMP headquarters In Surrey, B.C., on Dec. 7, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward)

The federal government is moving forward with a plan to tackle financial crime by calling for consultants to assist with creating a Financial Crimes Agency, which the Liberals first promised in their 2021 election campaign platform.

“The Department of Public Safety has a requirement for a contractor to conduct research, analysis and undertake key stakeholder interviews in order to develop a final report outlining options for the organizational design of the Canadian Financial Crimes Agency,” the department said in a notice to contractors, obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter.

Public Safety said its final report on the matter is due on March 31, 2024.

“The final report will compliment internal research, analysis and policy development to inform a proposal to establish this new law enforcement agency,” it said.

The proposed nationwide agency will target crimes like money laundering, insider trading, fraud, and organized crime, according to the Liberals’ 2021 election campaign platform.

The platform said the agency’s “sole purpose” will be investigating and enforcing federal law in these areas of crime.

It added that the government will invest $200 million in the new agency over the next four years and will grant it new federal powers.

“This agency will bring together, under one roof, existing law enforcement resources of the RCMP, the intelligence capabilities of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre, and expertise of the Canada Revenue Agency,” the platform said.

‘A Dedicated Unit’

In his 2021 mandate letter to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau instructed him to “accelerate work to establish a dedicated unit to investigate all forms of major financial crime and consider options to strengthen laws and investigative powers relating to financial crimes.”

The mandate letter also instructed Mendicino to bring forward a proposal on the creation of the Canada Financial Crimes Agency, and that Mendicino would be assisted by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and Justice Minister David Lametti.

The House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety heard in April 2022 that the “move to a federal beneficial ownership registry is an absolute national security requirement.”

“Whether this is 2025 or 2023, it should happen as soon as possible,” said Alexander Cooley from Barnard College of New York while testifying before the committee on April 5, 2022.

Cooley said he believes every country “needs to know what the anonymous shell companies are and who’s behind them that are buying luxury real estate but also other assets.”

“I think any time you put the norm of privacy, and my client’s privacy, against transparency ... I think you’re on the losing side.”

Last week, after B.C.’s prosecution service announced no charges will be laid in the E-Nationalize investigation into millions of dollars that moved through B.C. casinos and Chinese bank accounts, B.C. Premier David Eby called for tougher laws.

“Obviously, there’s a serious problem with federal criminal law that allows this conduct to continue in our province,” he said on March 2.

“It’s probably shocking to British Columbians that you can have somebody in our province accepting suitcases full of bundled bills, operating in an unlicensed, illegal so-called money service business, receiving the money clandestinely, and that after teams of prosecutors have reviewed that conduct that there is no criminal charge that they can find that they can proceed with.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.