'Benchmark' B.C. money laundering investigation ends with no charges against alleged loan shark

A high-profile, five-year investigation into money laundering in B.C. has ended with a special prosecutor declining to lay any charges against an accused loan shark.

The B.C. Prosecution Service announced Wednesday that special prosecutor Christopher Considine has cleared Paul King Jin on eight recommended charges stemming from an investigation code-named E-Nationalize, confirming an earlier decision from the provincial Crown.

In a clear statement released to the public, Considine wrote that the investigation produced "ample evidence" that Jin conducted millions of dollars worth of transactions on behalf of two unidentified people referred to by the initials A and B. There was also potential evidence he intended to "conceal or convert" that money, the statement says.

What was less certain, however, is whether the cash Jin moved for his clients was dirty money from a drug trafficking operation, as had been alleged.

"Large bundles of cash are highly suspicious, but without evidence of A and B being engaged in unlawful activity, does the cash on its own lead to the irresistible inference that it can only be the proceeds of offences prosecutable by indictment? I am not certain it does," Considine wrote.

"Ultimately, while the evidence, taken together, paints a highly suspicious portrait of A's and B's operations, suspicion alone is not sufficient to prove a predicate offence beyond reasonable doubt."

B.C.'s strict charge approval standard requires evidence to support a substantial likelihood of conviction.

Investigators 'worked tirelessly'

Jin's name was raised repeatedly during B.C.'s public inquiry into money laundering. He was granted standing at the inquiry after commissioner Austin Cullen noted that his name had emerged in testimony suggesting he "has been engaged in money laundering and loan sharking relating to activities at British Columbia casinos."

Jin was also a key figure in the RCMP's failed E-Pirate investigation into an alleged money laundering operation but escaped prosecution in that case as well.

In 2021, B.C.'s anti-gang agency, the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), recommended charges against Jin in connection with E-Nationalize, including offences related to money laundering and organized crime.

The agency described the investigation in 2019 as one of the largest in its history and said it was "likely to set an investigative benchmark and precedent for future money laundering investigations by Canadian law enforcement."

Crown counsel declined to approve charges, but the CFSEU appealed that decision to the provincial attorney general, who appointed Considine in November 2021 to conduct an independent charge assessment.

In his clear statement, Considine said he understood the attorney general believes there is a strong public interest in producing charges in this case but taking it to court would be a complex undertaking with numerous potential pitfalls.

"While it is possible to identify on paper a theoretical legal path to conviction, my instincts tell me a prosecution is likely to founder. The public interest would not be well served by embarking on an expensive and lengthy prosecution that comes to naught," he wrote.

He went on to say that his decision should not be taken as a criticism of the investigators involved in E-Nationalize, "many of whom have worked tirelessly to bring this unwieldy investigation to completion in a commendably orderly and coherent state."

But he added that police involved in money laundering investigations would benefit from having more regular communication with Crown to get legal advice about how to shape their work.

Considine also said he would support amendments to Canada's Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act to explicitly criminalize unlicensed money service businesses like the one Jin allegedly operated.

Jin was injured in a shooting at a Japanese restaurant in Richmond in September 2020. Jian Jun Zhu, another man accused of money laundering and investigated during E-Pirate, was killed in the same shooting.