Money-laundering inquiry gives B.C. Lottery CEO full standing
Credit to Author: Gordon Hoekstra| Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2019 19:55:04 +0000
The B.C. Lottery Corp.’s president, Jim Lightbody, has been given full standing as a participant at a public inquiry into money laundering.
But Fred Pinnock, who headed an illegal gambling investigation unit in B.C. that was shut down in 2009, was not given full standing in a commission ruling released Friday.
A decision on another senior B.C. Lottery official, Bad Desmarais, vice-president of casinos and gaming, will be made once more information is presented to the inquiry, expected in the next month.
With the addition of Lightbody, 18 participants have now been granted participant standing in the inquiry called by the B.C. NDP government. Those include the Attorney-General Ministry’s gaming policy and enforcement branch, the federal government and the B.C. Lottery Corp.
Evidentiary hearings are expected to begin in the spring.
At a preliminary hearing last week, the two lotteries officials had argued they should get participant standing because their actions as individuals may be called into question.
Pinnock argued he should be a participant because he was a whistleblower and has special insight into his allegation of a lack of action of the former B.C. Liberal government and the RCMP in tackling growing money laundering problems in the gaming industry.
In the written ruling released Friday, the inquiry head. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen. said that while there is considerable common ground between Lightbody and the B.C. Lottery Corp, there is also a realistic prospect that protecting his individual rights would place him in an incompatible position to the BCLC.
Cullen said, however, that his participant status is conditional on his not duplicating information provided by the BCLC.
Cullen ruled that Pinnock could provide any information he has as a witness.
Participants normally have more privileges than witnesses, with the potential to call their own witnesses, carry out cross-examination and produce documents, although the commission has not hammered out the exact rules.
Other participants approved to date are: the B.C. Ministry of Finance, the B.C. Society of Notaries Public, the B.C. Law Society, Great Canadian Gaming, Gateway Casinos, the Canadian Gaming Association, the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, BMW Canada, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Bar Association, the Criminal Defence Advocacy Society, and a coalition comprised of Transparency International Canada, Canadians for Tax Fairness and Publish What You Pay Canada.
Another individual has already been granted participant status: Robert Kroeker, who was the BCLC chief compliance officer from 2015 until the summer of 2019.