[3] The commission is mandated with examining whether systemic regulatory failures allowed money laundering to take root in BC casinos and real estate.
[4] The commission collected testimony of 200 witnesses, including former Premier Christy Clark[5] and former gaming minister Rich Coleman,[6] in an investigation that took place over more than 130 days.
[10] In May 2019, the provincial government appointed Austin Cullen, a Supreme Court of British Columbia justice, to lead the inquiry following three reports[11] stating that hundreds of millions of dollars in illegal cash affected the province's luxury vehicle, gaming, and real estate industries.
[12] The inquiry was originally scheduled to conclude in May 2021, but the COVID-19 pandemic and 2020 British Columbia general election caused delays; the report was delivered on June 2, 2022.
It was common practice for individuals involved with the illicit proceeds of organized crime in Vancouver to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in $20 bills, convert them to casino chips, and then withdraw the funds in higher denominations;[18] this process is referred to by investigators as "refining".
In response to this, the Attorney General of British Columbia David Eby stated that he was "incredibly concerned" about the reported reluctance to cooperate with the probe.
[22] The report also found that the CEO of the BC Lottery Corporation ignored federal anti-money laundering direction in favour of allowing these transactions as they were large revenue generators.