While some students attend post-secondary school to prepare for future careers, others may be helping criminal organizations wash their dirty cash – which is why the province is asking public and private colleges and universities to review their financial policies.
Advanced Education Minister Melanie Mark said she's written a letter to every public and private post-secondary school in the province giving them one month to review how they process transactions.
"We want to make sure that we close any loopholes immediately," Mark told reporters Tuesday. "We need to ensure payment of large amounts of cash from a single student are not accepted."
The concern comes after Peter German’s second report into money laundering, "Dirty Money: Part 2." He said the institutions were vulnerable because of a willingness to accept cash.
He wrote some students paid thousands for tuition, only to withdraw weeks before the semester and collect a cheque, while others tried to pay cash for several semesters in advance. All these point to irregularities and a potential for misuse.
Attorney General David Eby said the scope of the problem isn't clear because FINTRAC – the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre – doesn't track cash payments at universities and colleges. He noted the government is working on solutions for various sectors of the economy identified as being vulnerable to the crime.
“You'll remember that this started in casinos I don't think anyone thought we'd be making an announcement about post-secondary institutions but here we are,” Eby told reporters in Victoria.
German’s report also referred to a book entitled "Hunting El Chapo" by Andrew Hogan, which German notes is regarded “by law enforcement officials as an accurate account of the events.” In the book, Hogan writes a 22 year-old who worked for El Chapo registered at a private college in Vancouver as he worked on the cartel’s cocaine operations. The college in question said they never found any evidence of that.
"We don't know the magnitude, the breadth," added Mark. "All we know is that there have been allegations through the second German report that indicate that post-secondary institutions both public and private may be used there's serious allegations they may be a vehicle for money laundering and we want to close that loophole as soon as possible."
The schools have until June 30 to report back, as to whether they have a policy in place or when they would create one. Asked why she didn’t simply direct the institutions to stop accepting large amounts of cash, Mark said she’s considering what action the province may be able to take but wanted to see what the schools would do first.
A press release from the government says B.C. has 25 public and 342 private post-secondary institutions.
