A Richmond waiter, BC Karaoke Club, faces up to 22 months in jail for washing almost half a million dollars for undercover police officers who go through international cocaine traffickers.
A crown prosecutor told a judge of the Provincial Court on Thursday that Alexandra Joie Chow will be the first person convicted in BC for “pure money laundering” from the end of the Cullen Commission, a high -profile public investigation on the problem more than three years ago.
At the Chow’s sentence hearing in Richmond, prosecutor David Hainey cited the conclusions of the commission on the illicit economy that supports the underworld of British Columbia when he asked the 37 -year -old woman to turn time after bars, despite the call of her lawyer to a conditional sentence that would see her home arrest.
“This is someone who provides a professional money laundering service to people who represent themselves as international cocaine traffickers,” Hainey told the Judge of the Provincial Court Richard Browning.
“This province has a documented history with money laundering after a lot of money and time spent on the Cullen Commission and a conditional sentence does not properly represent the conviction of the community.”
Suspicions of loan participation
Chow was arrested in November 2021 after an investigation by the joint team of illegal games research of the Compliance Compliance Unit of BC in another person, a man Suspicion of money laundering, participation of loans and extortion.
Hainey said the police observed how the man was seen attending Richmond Karaoke Bar where Chow worked and went out with what seemed to be a heavy bag. Police launched a sting to obtain a man’s cash loan, but an undercover officer established a relationship with Chow.
“Although she tried to convince him to” not get involved with these people, “he finally agreed to start a cash loan in exchange for vehicles as a guarantee,” said Hainey.
After ensuring a loan, undercover officers told Chow that they needed a way to legitimize large amounts of cash. She agreed to convert invoices packages into clean banks made to a numbered company in exchange for a five percent commission.
In the months that followed, Hainey said that Chow made nine money laundering transactions that involve cash packages worth up to $ 70,000 each. He also said that the commission would be less in quantities greater than $ 100,000.
She told the undercover officers that she only took one percent of the commission for herself, since others needed to be paid, including those whose bank accounts were used to issue the drafts.
“The people who provided the bank drafts were ‘clean,” Hainey told the judge. “She told him [the undercover officers] that one of these people who provided the bank drafts worked in a bank. “
‘She was caught’
Although Chow was arrested in November 2021, she was not accused until almost two years later, when the police issued a press release detailing an investigation into her and a 49 -year -old man.
Police said they raided properties in Richmond and Burnaby, BC, taking advantage of score sheets with customer names and payment maturity dates, as well as bank drafts, cell phones and high -end vehicles.
The charges have never been announced against the man, but the director of Civil Confiscation of BC initiated a procedure against Chow that sought to seize his Porsche Cayman 2008 as part of the product of the crime.
Hainey suggested that Chow lacked information about his crimes, but his lawyer, Josh Oppal, told the judge that his client had assumed the responsibility of his actions, despite telling the author of a presentation report that he felt that he had been caught by the police.
“Entering a base level sense is a way that someone could describe a undercover police operation,” Oppal said.
“She was trapped in that and those are the circumstances.”
‘I’m sorry that this happened’
Hainey said Chow deserves a prison sentence that ranges between 18 and 22 months. While Oppal did not disagree with the proposed duration of the prayer, he said that Chow should fulfill his time in the community instead of behind bars.
Oppal told The Court Chow, that he has no previous criminal record, he was born in Toronto, but lived in Hong Kong with his parents between the ages of five and 13.
“At that time she saw more than [the] The family’s keys that any of the parents, “Oppal said.
The lawyer said that Chow maintains a close relationship with his parents, who now live in Richmond, although they do not know the charges against him. She works as Sous-Chef in a hotel and still pushes the occasional change in the Karaoke bar where she met the police for the first time.
Oppal said that Chow would be a good candidate for a conditional sentence, but Hainey said the prison WtAccording to what is necessary, to send a message of deterrence and complaint for the money laundering that drives the BC drug economy.
The prosecutor said that Chow was more than a mere messaging or mule service for a sophisticated operation and that was not under illusions that, as far as he knew, the men he was treating were not international cocaine traffickers.
Hainey included the executive summary of the investigation headed by the judge of the Supreme Court Austin Cullen as part of his presentations. The report described money laundering “a significant problem that deserves the serious attention of the government, the application of the law and regulators.”
“Money laundering has, such as its origin, the crime that destroys communities, such as drug trafficking, human trafficking and fraud. These crimes victory the most vulnerable members of society,” Cullen wrote.
“Money laundering is also an affront to the respectful citizens of the law that earn their money honestly and pay their fair part of the costs of living in a community.”
Chow spoke directly with the judge at the end of the procedures of judgment of the day, saying that he did not know the impact of money laundering on the community where he lives and works.
“I’m very sorry that this happened,” he said. “I just didn’t know that this is so serious until that happened.”
Browning reserved his decision until November.
