Two charged with money laundering
SWAT team members take a suspect into custody following a raid on two currency exchange businesses in May 2008. Charges have now been laid against two men
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Updated: June 26, 2009 1:24 PM
The dramatic takedown of a currency exchange in Langley City on May 26, 2008 has now led to charges against two men.
RCMP announced on Friday that they have charged Robinderpal Rathor, 30, and Taranjit Rathor, 21, with several counts of money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The RCMP’s Federal Integrated Proceeds of Crime Unit seized $160,000 US in connection with the case.
Police arrested four men at gunpoint at two currency exchanges, Global Tourist Centre (GTC) at 20505 Fraser Highway, and at Capital Forex, 5560 204 St.
The operation involved Langley RCMP, the Vancouver Integrated Proceeds of Crime Section, E Division’s Integrated Technological Crime Unit, and the Lower Mainland Emergency Response Team.
As heavily armed and uniformed RCMP officers pushed their way into the Forex office, opposite Langley City Hall, the SWAT team stormed into the rear entrance of GTC, which is in a small mall fronting Fraser Highway.
Over the next 50 minutes, four men emerged from GTC, their faces covered with a jacket or blanket, and were placed in the back of a marked police car. No one at the Forex was arrested.
Shortly after the takedown, a police spokesman said that the operation “has to do with money laundering which we are alleging is linked to organized crime.”
In some cases, individual transactions amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Money laundering is the practice of making financial transactions specifically to conceal the source or destination of money derived by illegal means.
The investigation began in 2007 after police received a tip that led them to the Langley exchanges.
“These two currency exchanges were operated by two men who were allegedly laundering the proceeds of crime through these businesses,” the RCMP said in a statement on Friday.
Using undercover RCMP officers, the Proceeds of Crime unit infiltrated the criminal organization.
The unit laundered $21,300 in Canadian currency, and more than $550,000 in U.S. funds.
Police said in Friday’s statement that “People who knowingly participate in money laundering by turning a blind eye and not asking the right questions on where the money is coming from, are contributing to help put profits into pockets of traffickers.”
Police did not say whether the two Rathors are related. Both have made several court appearances, and their next date is on June 15.
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