British Columbians need answers about why charges were stayed in the province’s largest money-laundering case.
Police and prosecutors have clammed up about the reasons for staying the charges from the RCMP’s E-Pirate investigation, which alleged a Richmond group laundered more than $500 million. Even Attorney General David Eby was told nothing until he read about the stays in a newspaper.
A five-week trial had been scheduled just before the Crown stayed the charges. Police say they will learn from the case, but won’t say anything more for operational reasons. Even Eby isn’t sure if he will get any more information.
That’s not good enough. B.C. has developed a reputation as a haven for money laundering. If police and the Crown can’t successfully prosecute such cases, we have a problem.
These were the only charges to come out of E-Pirate. If all that investigative work went for nothing, we can’t just file it away in a drawer.
Dropping the charges tells money launderers that B.C. is still open for business.
