$18.5K seized from BC escort on her way home from U.S.

[ck_nj]

Hey guys. First post here. I`m usually on MERB.

CaptRenault from merb posted it. Thought you guys would like to know since the lady is from your neck of the woods.

Too bad about the lady this happened to. Was she a perb member?

https://merb.cc/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=17820

Here is the article:

According to an article in La Presse (the leading francophone paper in Montreal), a Canadian escort on her way home to British Columbia after a sojourn in the US was arrested at the Ottawa airport after failing to properly declare the amount of money in her possession. Below is a link to the article and my translation.

Une soi-disant prostituée se fait confisquer 18 000 $ à l`aéroport
Cyberpresse.ca
Monday 10 July 2006

$18,000 seized from a purported prostitute at the airport

A traveler who said she worked as a prostitute had $18,470 in US cash and postal money orders seized from her by border agents at the Ottawa airport Thursday afternoon.

The 27 year old woman is from Burnaby in British Columbia and she was stopped after getting off a flight coming from Boston. During the previous month she had also stayed in Los Angeles, CA. At the time of her arrest she was on her way to British Columbia.

The suspect caught the attention of the customs officers after filling out an entry questionnaire form. She declared that she had acquired some goods during her stay on American soil, but she neglected to indicate the value of her purchases.

A search of her personal effects allowed an agent to discover US $3,790 in cash in her pocketbook. It also contained about 20 postal money orders with a total value of US $14,500.

In accordance with the Law on the recycling of proceeds from criminal activity and financing of terrorist activities, these funds were seized because the woman had neglected to declare the amount of money in her possesion above the limit of $10,000.

 

[westwoody]

How can someone be so stupid? Every time I go over the border-either way-they ask how much money I have, and do I have more than $10k. She could have sent them home by FedEx.
From the sounds of it she'll make it back in a month anyway.

 

[Maury Beniowski]

Proceeds of crime or terrorism is hard to prove. It's only a matter of time before she gets it all back, maybe... This is standard procedure with CCRA, because she neglected to disclose a large sum exceeding $10K. The burden of proof is on her now to disclose the source of these earnings, earning her a red flag on her taxation file in the interim, as well as an unwelcome audit. If she's been diligent in her previous tax relationship with CCRA, she should have no problem. On the other hand, if she's been hiding under the CCRA radar screen all these years, it will make thing all the more difficult.

 

[westwoody]

MB, the CCRA will likely go after her for smuggling the money into the country without declaring it on the form. Whether or not it was declared income is irrelevant, the fact is that she smuggled it into the country and was caught in the act. If she had declared it on her customs form things would be different. You are right in that CCRA doesn't really care how you get your money as long as they get a slice.

 

[Maury Beniowski]

MB, the CCRA will likely go after her for smuggling the money into the country without declaring it on the form. Whether or not it was declared income is irrelevant, the fact is that she smuggled it into the country and was caught in the act. If she had declared it on her customs form things would be different. You are right in that CCRA doesn't really care how you get your money as long as they get a slice.

You're right. Best case scenario, if she's on the up & up, is she'll be given a stern reprimand, and a fine to boot...

If she's not square with CCRA, then she'll be better off to walk away!

I wonder who she is!!

A Burnaby jetsetter. That kind of narrows the field down quite a bit...

She should bring a Rottweiler next time, and stuff the money in a cigar tube, you know where. Poor pooch!

 

[Avery]

Une soi-disant prostituée se fait confisquer 18 000 $ à l'aéroport
Cyberpresse.ca

It will be very hard for her to escape CCRA's clutches if that headline is true. It means, "A self-saying (i.e. admitted) prostitute has $18.000 confiscated at airport". Apparently she told the authorities how she got the money!

 

[LonelyGhost]

Apparently she told the authorities how she got the money!

the dumbasses probably fingered her as a terrorist when she told
them she made the money through 'blow jobs'!

 

[tedsweettangv]

I wonder who she is!!

What a class A stupid move on her part. There are much easier ways to get that coin across the border with no risk at all.

Too bad for her she made the wrong decision.

Yeah convert it to pot, nobody would believe you are smuggling pot INTO BC

 

[InTheBum]

I thought it was Avarice!

I wonder who she is!!

What a class A stupid move on her part. There are much easier ways to get that coin across the border with no risk at all.

Too bad for her she made the wrong decision.

Hey Girl, I actually thought it was you!

 

[rollerboy]

Well, she got fucked in the ass, of course it's gonna cost extra.

No doubt the IRS would love to know how she obtained these funds.

 

[hitrack]

tough shit, she may think she can jerk her Johns around but the border patrol is not someone you wanna fukk with. They'll square you away a new asshole if they think you got a stick of gum rat-holed up there.

 

[A Nonny Mouse]

Not JUST terrorists

This nabbing of funds is not aimed at terrorists, but against the criminal element in general. The goal is to prohibit money laundering.

I manage real estate, and we regularly get notices from the RCMP about the bad guys buying land and buildings for cash. We are on the lookout for certain traits that indicate the "tenant" may in fact be looking for a house to set up his grow-op in.

It is not a well known fact that if you transfer funds greater than $10,000 between banks, the banks are obligated to contact the RCMP. Keep your tansfers to less than 10 G's if you do not want scrutiny.

I am not sure how that lady would transport $18,000 cross border without raising suspicion. FexEx envelopes go through customs too, and are subject to being opened. The US has the same $10,000 reporting criteria, so transfer from one US bank to a Cdn one may not solve the problem. It is a sign of our times.

Buy diamonds! They are your best friends, ladies.

 

[Randy Whorewald]

Poor gal done all that work only to see her hard earned money evaporate. Quite sad really.

 

[stryker]

Poor gal done all that work only to see her hard earned money evaporate. Quite sad really.

Do Ya know how to say STUPID?

 

[Randy Whorewald]

Do Ya know how to say STUPID?

Yep - but I think its even dumber than that Stryker. Its beyond me how she could be so stupid.

 

[neo-pervert]

She'll get it back

All that happens is that she has to pay a fine to get her money back.
The fact that she is an escort does not mean her carrying moeny is proceeds to crime. If she is smart she can get it back. The gov will have a weak case if they try to prove that she is a criminal.

It happens everyday, especially with people coming from Asia. No one wants to declare when you have a lot of cabbage in the pocket.

The smartest thing to do would be to have an american account and just deposit it in there. Using fed-ex is no safer than carrying it on hand as CBSA sort through all parcel coming in to fed ex, UPS and all.

Maybe she should have hooped it...

 

[visiting]

I disagree to some extend. In the not to distant past I use to work closely with an accountant and I know many of the companies he was involved with had transactions far in excess of $10,000 in fact they would multiple transactions of this amount daily because most of what they sold was in Europe. I certainly don't recall each and every transaction being scutnized. In fact I doubt multinationals could conduct business under these circumstances.

C-L, there is a big difference with companies mailing a check, and a person carrying cold cash, a big difference. Obviously there are billions of dollars in transactions every day international trade, but if you ask your accountant friend, how many people carried money in their pockets to bring to their suppliers, the list would be very, very short. The Bank of Canada stopped printing $1000 Bills, one the reasons was there is no reason for most to have these bills, and they were great for criminals, as it just made it easy for them to carry or hide money. When you deposit or withdraw, certain amounts of money your financial institution has to inform the government, (I am not sure anymore I think it is 10,000$) maybe less now with 9/11.

A US customs agent once told me one of the reasons they are concerned about people coming into the country with large amount of cash, was their intentions. Lots of people claiming to be on a holiday for 2 weeks, but would just never leave. It's not illegal to bring more than 10,000$ but you need to declare it to the customs agents, and if you can justify it, not a problem, but I imagine, it will be easier for a Canadian businessman then a Columbian exchange student to explain.

 

[dellhi]

She should claim that she is a famer and she RAISED A LOT OF COCKS

 

[visiting]

I know there's a big difference. The point is any self respecting money laundier would use a company to funnel their money through. All this $10,000 cash limit is going to do is catch the odd idiot.

There are still lots of ways to launder money, but by writing a check, money order, draft, or wire, there is a trace, it may be a small trace, but it is there to be found.


I agree with you, there are idiots, lots of them actually!

 

[mustangjoe]

She should claim that she is a famer and she RAISED A LOT OF COCKS

Not bad for a first post.