Saturday, June 04, 2005

Why the RCMP won't investigate ADSCAM

A report today shows why the Liberals have nothing to fear from the RCMP in the Adscam affair...
From Canoe via Canadian Press:
OTTAWA (CP) - The RCMP did not pursue more than a third of the money-laundering tips passed on by Canada's financial sleuthing agency, largely because the force lacked the manpower, says a newly released report.
The Mounties did not open investigations on 45 files turned over to them by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, better known as Fintrac, says the document.
The agency was established in 2000 to gather financial intelligence from banks and other institutions on potential money-laundering schemes. After careful analysis, Fintrac forwards information on the most suspicious transactions to the RCMP and other police forces.
An internal Fintrac report, obtained under the Access to Information Act, found the Mounties did not chase 45 of the 131 high-quality tips the agency had produced to the end of 2003. Virtually all of the cases not pursued were suspected schemes in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, where the national police force places most of its proceeds-of-crime investigators.
And about three-quarters of the abandoned tips were not investigated simply because the RCMP had "limited resources."
"There is no shortage of evidence against these individuals committing crime, just a shortage of investigators to bring all the criminals to justice," says the 31-page report from 2004.
The findings suggest the extent of money-laundering in Canada, most of which stems from drug-trafficking, far exceeds the ability of the RCMP to investigate.