Money-laundering inquiry calls back ex-minister over inconsistencies during 1st round of testimony

A formal inquiry into the issue ofmoney laundering in B.C. is calling a former cabinet minister back to the stand to testify for a second time overinconsistencies in his first round of sworntestimony.

Rich Coleman,a six-term former Liberal member of the B.C. Legislature, will have to testify before the Cullen Commission again on May 14, sources confirmed Wednesday.

CBC News reported last week that Coleman had contradicted himself on April 28 during his initial testimony.

Hewas askedabout mediareports in the early 2010s highlighting the problem of dirty cash in Lower Mainland casinos. He said he'd seen a CBC News investigation in 2011 that detailedhow $8 millionin suspected drug money floweduncheckedthrough two casinos in three months.

Testifying under oath, Colemantold lawyers the story would have worried him.

"It would have been concerning to me because my understanding, all the way through the file, is it wasn't possible [to launder money that way]," Coleman said.

Butthat's not what he said at the time the article published.

WATCH |When Coleman testified in Aprilat the inquiry, he gave conflicting testimony aboutreports of dirty money pouring into casinos under his watch a decade earlier:

Former B.C. gaming minister gave conflicting testimony during money laundering inquiry

3 years ago

Duration 2:27

When B.C.'s former solicitor general Rich Coleman testified in April 2021 at the province's money laundering inquiry, he gave conflicting testimony about news reports of dirty money pouring into casinos under his watch a decade earlier.

Coleman told CBCin a follow-upinterviewin 2011he did not "agree with" concerns raised in the article by RCMP Insp. Barry Baxter, who suspected the avalanche of cash coming into casinos was full of dirty money.

Coleman said Baxter's comments were "offside" and that he'd gone to the officer's superiors.

"I don't agree with him and neither do all the superiors of his in the RCMP and that's why I said to them, 'OK,guys, we're gonna have a look at this. These comments came from you. I want them backed up,'" Coleman told CBC in 2011.

Last Wednesday at the commission, Coleman denied he'd spokento Baxter's higher-ups.

'No, I did not'

"Did you do anything in response to the comments that were made by Insp. Baxter?" asked commission lawyer Brock Martland.

"No, I did not," Coleman replied.

"OK, you didn't speak with others at RCMP?" Martland said.

"No, I did not."

The Cullen commission is meant to determine where and how money laundering has been happening in B.C., why it's been allowed to continueand whether it can be prevented in the future.

The province called the inquiry in 2018 after reports detailed how more than $100 million had been cleaned in B.C.'s gaming, luxury car and real estate sectors over a decade-and-a-half.

Coleman was one of several former cabinet ministers called to testify. He and the otherpoliticians were grilled on whether they knew about the scope of the problem andwhether they acted to investigate or solve the problem, whichdistorted the provincial economy for years.