Post by jannikki on Dec 9, 2006 22:27:28 GMT -4
RCMP lacks resources to track funds
Tells Senate it has capacity to probe only 150 of 800 known criminal organizations
Dec. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM
TARA PERKINS
BUSINESS REPORTER
The federal and provincial governments need to put more resources into tracking the money trail behind criminal activity, the head of the Senate banking committee says, after learning that the RCMP is aware of about 800 criminal organizations in Canada but has the capacity to investigate only about 150 of them.
"This came as a shock to us," Senator Jerry Grafstein, chairman of the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, said in an interview yesterday.
"Law enforcement for illicit activities and white-collar crime is clearly underfunded."
The banking committee has been holding hearings to examine Bill C-25, which would strengthen Canada's laws to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
On Thursday, Raf Souccar, assistant commissioner of federal and international operations at the RCMP, said "we are aware that there are 800 criminal organizations in Canada and we have a capacity to investigate perhaps 150 of them," according to a transcript of the proceedings.
"As a criminal organization gets more and more sophisticated, the whole idea is taking their dirty money to make it legitimate at one point in time," he said. "It is taking dirty money and investing it in a legitimate business. In the process, of course, there is the unfair competition, and the economy is harmed in a big way."
He declined to give the committee details of who the crime groups are except to agree "it is no secret the Hells Angels is one of them."
Souccar said "it would be great" to have a complete team of investigators dedicated to money laundering or terrorist financing.
"With each investigation that we conduct, we have a proceeds of crime component and a money-laundering component to it. That is on the organized crime side," he said.
"On the national security side, the same type of initiative is in place, where we try to conduct the terrorism-financing investigation along with the terrorist national security investigation itself. Resources are an issue."
He added that the number of known organized crime groups in Canada is going up every year, as police and intelligence bodies get better at digging up information.
"We do a threat analysis of each one of them to rank them in order and then we go after them one at a time. The operation you heard about recently in Montreal was one organization that ranked at the top of the list. We go after them based on the impact and threat that they pose to our homes and communities," he said.
Grafstein would like to see an increase in the number of investigators who have sophisticated financial knowledge, such as forensic accountants.
Souccar said that, broadly, the RCMP has been receiving significant resources over the last year, but "this area is one that I believe is not staffed anywhere near what it should be because, as I highlighted earlier, the commonality between all these criminal organizations is to make money."
Rick Reynolds, director of the RCMP's national security operations branch, said, "we are running just over 1,500 files on terrorist investigations, of which approximately 150 are terrorist financing investigations in this country."
The RCMP's proceeds of crime branch is to receive funding for 12 additional investigators to help build capacity in the three major financial centres of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Souccar said.
And the RCMP's national security operations branch will receive funding for 33 investigators, allowing the RCMP to form dedicated terrorism-financing units.
But Grafstein said it's not enough.
"The question is lack of resources," Grafstein said. The committee is speaking out "to give a wake-up call to governments — not just the federal government, but provincial governments — (that) we'd better spend more time and more money and organize ourselves in a better fashion to get at this type of crime."
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty appeared before the committee on Wednesday and said that Canada's anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing regime ranks near the top internationally.
Since April 1, 2002, Canada has prosecuted 567 money-laundering charges, he said, and about $132 million has been taken in 5,000 currency seizures at the border. Of that, more than $34 million was forfeited to the government.
Fintrac, Canada's financial intelligence unit, was key to the police investigation that led to the recent arrests of 73 organized crime suspects in Montreal, he added.
Bill C-25 would require money-service businesses and foreign-0exchange dealers to be registered. And dealers in precious metals, stones and jewellery would be required to report cash transactions of more than $10,000.
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1165619410484&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
Tells Senate it has capacity to probe only 150 of 800 known criminal organizations
Dec. 9, 2006. 01:00 AM
TARA PERKINS
BUSINESS REPORTER
The federal and provincial governments need to put more resources into tracking the money trail behind criminal activity, the head of the Senate banking committee says, after learning that the RCMP is aware of about 800 criminal organizations in Canada but has the capacity to investigate only about 150 of them.
"This came as a shock to us," Senator Jerry Grafstein, chairman of the Senate committee on banking, trade and commerce, said in an interview yesterday.
"Law enforcement for illicit activities and white-collar crime is clearly underfunded."
The banking committee has been holding hearings to examine Bill C-25, which would strengthen Canada's laws to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
On Thursday, Raf Souccar, assistant commissioner of federal and international operations at the RCMP, said "we are aware that there are 800 criminal organizations in Canada and we have a capacity to investigate perhaps 150 of them," according to a transcript of the proceedings.
"As a criminal organization gets more and more sophisticated, the whole idea is taking their dirty money to make it legitimate at one point in time," he said. "It is taking dirty money and investing it in a legitimate business. In the process, of course, there is the unfair competition, and the economy is harmed in a big way."
He declined to give the committee details of who the crime groups are except to agree "it is no secret the Hells Angels is one of them."
Souccar said "it would be great" to have a complete team of investigators dedicated to money laundering or terrorist financing.
"With each investigation that we conduct, we have a proceeds of crime component and a money-laundering component to it. That is on the organized crime side," he said.
"On the national security side, the same type of initiative is in place, where we try to conduct the terrorism-financing investigation along with the terrorist national security investigation itself. Resources are an issue."
He added that the number of known organized crime groups in Canada is going up every year, as police and intelligence bodies get better at digging up information.
"We do a threat analysis of each one of them to rank them in order and then we go after them one at a time. The operation you heard about recently in Montreal was one organization that ranked at the top of the list. We go after them based on the impact and threat that they pose to our homes and communities," he said.
Grafstein would like to see an increase in the number of investigators who have sophisticated financial knowledge, such as forensic accountants.
Souccar said that, broadly, the RCMP has been receiving significant resources over the last year, but "this area is one that I believe is not staffed anywhere near what it should be because, as I highlighted earlier, the commonality between all these criminal organizations is to make money."
Rick Reynolds, director of the RCMP's national security operations branch, said, "we are running just over 1,500 files on terrorist investigations, of which approximately 150 are terrorist financing investigations in this country."
The RCMP's proceeds of crime branch is to receive funding for 12 additional investigators to help build capacity in the three major financial centres of Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Souccar said.
And the RCMP's national security operations branch will receive funding for 33 investigators, allowing the RCMP to form dedicated terrorism-financing units.
But Grafstein said it's not enough.
"The question is lack of resources," Grafstein said. The committee is speaking out "to give a wake-up call to governments — not just the federal government, but provincial governments — (that) we'd better spend more time and more money and organize ourselves in a better fashion to get at this type of crime."
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty appeared before the committee on Wednesday and said that Canada's anti-money-laundering and anti-terrorist-financing regime ranks near the top internationally.
Since April 1, 2002, Canada has prosecuted 567 money-laundering charges, he said, and about $132 million has been taken in 5,000 currency seizures at the border. Of that, more than $34 million was forfeited to the government.
Fintrac, Canada's financial intelligence unit, was key to the police investigation that led to the recent arrests of 73 organized crime suspects in Montreal, he added.
Bill C-25 would require money-service businesses and foreign-0exchange dealers to be registered. And dealers in precious metals, stones and jewellery would be required to report cash transactions of more than $10,000.
www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1165619410484&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851