Vancouver Casino Money Launderer Murder Accused Faces Direct Indictment

Canadian federal prosecutors will proceed by direct indictment in the case against two men accused of participation in the murder of a notorious casino money launderer, Richmond News reports.

Richard Charles (Ricky) Reed is charged with the first-degree murder of Jian Jun Zhu, who was gunned down as he dined at the Manzo Japanese restaurant in Richmond, Metro Vancouver. Codefendant Yuexi Lei is charged as an accessory after the fact.

Such situations may include but are not limited to where an investigation is ongoing or where witnesses may have been intimidated or threatened, according to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada’s website.

Sgt. David Lee of the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said that after Reed was charged last November, additional people were involved in the crime, and the investigation continued.

Drug Money

Authorities believe Zhu was the axis of a large-scale money laundering operation. That enterprise allegedly washed hundreds of millions of dollars through Vancouver-area casinos.

He was shot as he dined with Paul King Jin, also a suspected money launderer, on September 18, 2020. He died the next day in the hospital. Jin was injured in the attack but survived.

The operation may have laundered as much as $250 million per year through casinos. It took dirty cash from drug gangs and lent to high rollers on trips from China, eager to bypass strict controls on moving money out of their homeland.

At this time, BC casinos were too willing to accept large amounts of cash in low denomination bills. The Chinese high rollers could gamble minimally before converting their chips into check form.

Silver would use a network of Chinese bank accounts to receive payments from high rollers and to pay the criminal gangs.

Things Fall Apart

Zhu and Qin were charged in 2017, and the case was billed as Canada’s biggest ever money laundering prosecution. It culminated in Operation E-Pirate, a massive RCMP investigation into criminal money laundering networks.

But the case fell apart in 2019 because of a procedural error. Prosecutors inadvertently disclosed the name of a key secret government witness during a standard evidence disclosure. Federal prosecutors determined that to continue would place the witness at “high risk of death,” and the judge stayed the case.