Chinese Money Launderers Took 50% of Vancouvers Prime Real Estate
A 2016 report from Transparency International said that almost 50 per cent of Vancouver’s most expensive properties are owned through legal mechanisms, such as trusts and shell companies, which are used to hide true ownership.
In an interview, Clement said that the allegations laid out in Langdale’s report — specifically, that Triads are producing deadly chemical narcotics in Chinese factories, shipping the drugs to B.C., and laundering proceeds of crime in Vancouver before returning funds to Chinese factory production — are completely accurate.
In fact, Clement investigated and reported on this same criminal blueprint, in 1994. In Canada’s Consulate General in Hong Kong, Clement and an immigration control officer uncovered an alleged Triad immigration fraud that they say allowed the gangs to gain a foothold in B.C.
After establishing a strong base in Vancouver, Clement says, the Triads forged a criminal trade loop with Triad factories in Guangdong.
Clement’s 1994 report explains how the Triads have used “quasi-legitimate” real estate development, construction, and financial companies to launder drug cash in Vancouver real estate. In one method, Triad companies send drug funds to offshore bank accounts, and use these deposits to secure mortgages for purchasing and developing B.C. land.
Another method involves falsified contracts used to make drug cash appear to be legitimate real estate wealth. The buyers pay artificially high prices for property, recording transactions in B.C.’s land title system. But a much lower actual price is paid to a Triad-linked seller, in an offshore bank account transaction.
Clement says these offshore transactions have likely had the effect of artificially inflating prices across Metro Vancouver housing markets, and leaving swaths of empty homes.
“What we see in Vancouver real estate is heartbreaking,” Clement said. “I saw the same thing in Panama, with the empty homes.”
The documents say that in April 2016, border agents at a Montreal airport seized about 5,600 counterfeit foil holograms from China, designed to authenticate Quebec health insurance cards. This case concerns the CBSA, an intelligence brief says, because the forgeries could facilitate immigration frauds that threaten Canada’s national security.
