There is a principle of financial investigation so old that it’s often used in its original Latin: Cui bono?
The question of who benefits, as the term translates, implies that, if you are trying to solve any crime — particularly one involving money — you must look for who stood to profit.
Despite commendable investigative work in B.C. lately on money laundering, experts say the fact that it has been a problem in Canada is an old, open secret.
As someone tweeted following a story on the C.D. Howe report by Transparency International’s Kevin Comeau, Canadian money laundering was not exactly “new news.”
‘Maytag’ of money laundering
“All available evidence suggests that international drug barons view Canada as a safe place to launder their illegal cash,” said a Maclean’s magazine story cited in the tweet. “In fact, DEA agents laughingly refer to Canada as the ‘Maytag’ of the money-laundering industry.”
It was definitely not fresh news. That Maclean’s piece was published about 30 years ago, in October 1989.