Vancouver is cleaning its up image as a haven for international criminals with crackdown on money laundering in luxury
car market
By cracking down on money laundering in the luxury car market, the good folks in Vancouver are cleaning up their city’s image as a haven for international criminals.
British Columbia Attorney General David Eby found an elaborate web involving straw buyers, sellers, and exporters after he launched an investigation into all of the tax money that was going to folks exporting luxury cars.
It’s really no different than what you see on the gangster movies. You invest your money in something legit, like a restaurant or a hair salon. The government doesn’t look at you with the side eye because, well, who’ll place cocaine in the potato salad or methamphetamine in the shampoo? At least, that’s what the government will be thinking at first. That is until they see a line of folks at the back door. Then that’s when the “you know what” hits the fan. But, y’all get the point.
Whenever you work in the “vice” industry, it’s always best to invest your money in something that won’t send up any antennas. And that’s exactly what the gangsters, pimps, and all the do-wrongs did in Vancouver.
They invested their money in luxury cars. They got a go-between man (straw buyer) to buy the car. The straw buyer then got with the exporter and they shipped the car to the “real buyer.”
Here’s the real sweet part. Under the Provincial Sales Tax (PST), the buyers get a refund. And due to the “real buyers” being who they are, the straw buyers don’t try to stiff them by holding on to that refund check that comes in the mail. So yeah, the do-wrongs made off pretty good by investing in luxury cars.
According to Eby, the government paid out about $85 million to folks claiming they were owed a refund.
So, just think about the number of people the government paid that almost $85 million to and what their cut was. Pretty sweet, huh?
Welp, Eby and his crew decided they were tired of all of that sweetness. They looked up and saw the refunds jumping from less than 100 every year, before 2014, to 3,674 by 2016. Eby and his crew looked at that and were like, “This is not good.”
They then launched an investigation to find out who all these folks were who were attached to the 3,674 refunds under the PST. And what they found was not good. Drug dealers, pimps, and other do-wrongs were giving cash to their straw buyers to buy the luxury cars.
As everybody knows, cash is considered under the table because it isn’t traceable; meaning no way for it to be taxed.
When the government can’t trace your money back to you, then they can’t tax you based on your income and your property.
Oh yeah, speaking of property, Eby and his crew are also looking into that “1980s Miami Boom” that happened to Vancouver real estate market.
Minister of Finance Carole James said the crime in the real estate market is so bad that it’s like “the Wild West with rampant speculation and out-of-control prices.”
Those high prices do make it hard for decent folks to find a decent home. And y’all know what that means, more folks needing government assistance.
The government can’t assist folks when the folks with the money are using middle men to hide all of their money.
Public schools, kids eating the school lunches, roads, bridges, streams, ponds, lakes, oceans, government buildings, and government workers are all shortchanged because the do-wrongs aren’t telling the government about all of their change and dollars that the government needs to get so it won’t keep coming up short.
Crime, it doesn’t pay anybody but the criminals.
British Columbia Attorney General David Eby found an elaborate web involving straw buyers, sellers, and exporters after he launched an investigation into all of the tax money that was going to folks exporting luxury cars.
It’s really no different than what you see on the gangster movies. You invest your money in something legit, like a restaurant or a hair salon. The government doesn’t look at you with the side eye because, well, who’ll place cocaine in the potato salad or methamphetamine in the shampoo? At least, that’s what the government will be thinking at first. That is until they see a line of folks at the back door. Then that’s when the “you know what” hits the fan. But, y’all get the point.
Whenever you work in the “vice” industry, it’s always best to invest your money in something that won’t send up any antennas. And that’s exactly what the gangsters, pimps, and all the do-wrongs did in Vancouver.
They invested their money in luxury cars. They got a go-between man (straw buyer) to buy the car. The straw buyer then got with the exporter and they shipped the car to the “real buyer.”
Here’s the real sweet part. Under the Provincial Sales Tax (PST), the buyers get a refund. And due to the “real buyers” being who they are, the straw buyers don’t try to stiff them by holding on to that refund check that comes in the mail. So yeah, the do-wrongs made off pretty good by investing in luxury cars.
According to Eby, the government paid out about $85 million to folks claiming they were owed a refund.
So, just think about the number of people the government paid that almost $85 million to and what their cut was. Pretty sweet, huh?
Welp, Eby and his crew decided they were tired of all of that sweetness. They looked up and saw the refunds jumping from less than 100 every year, before 2014, to 3,674 by 2016. Eby and his crew looked at that and were like, “This is not good.”
They then launched an investigation to find out who all these folks were who were attached to the 3,674 refunds under the PST. And what they found was not good. Drug dealers, pimps, and other do-wrongs were giving cash to their straw buyers to buy the luxury cars.
As everybody knows, cash is considered under the table because it isn’t traceable; meaning no way for it to be taxed.
When the government can’t trace your money back to you, then they can’t tax you based on your income and your property.
Oh yeah, speaking of property, Eby and his crew are also looking into that “1980s Miami Boom” that happened to Vancouver real estate market.
Minister of Finance Carole James said the crime in the real estate market is so bad that it’s like “the Wild West with rampant speculation and out-of-control prices.”
Those high prices do make it hard for decent folks to find a decent home. And y’all know what that means, more folks needing government assistance.
The government can’t assist folks when the folks with the money are using middle men to hide all of their money.
Public schools, kids eating the school lunches, roads, bridges, streams, ponds, lakes, oceans, government buildings, and government workers are all shortchanged because the do-wrongs aren’t telling the government about all of their change and dollars that the government needs to get so it won’t keep coming up short.
Crime, it doesn’t pay anybody but the criminals.
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