Shd go beyond money-laundering & look at broad issues: how did the BCLC board chair chair buy shares in Paragon while sitting on the board?
Which then bought Edgewater Casino out of bankruptcy. Then got major govt contract.
Then BCLC CEO takes job w same co.
1000 qs. #bcpoli
Which then bought Edgewater Casino out of bankruptcy. Then got major govt contract.
Then BCLC CEO takes job w same co.
1000 qs. #bcpoli
Am so mad about this I can’t thread straight, so check my TL.
But we’ve got:
1. Cabinet minister responsible for casinos AND policing who shuts down police unit after warnings of corruption;
#bcpoli
But we’ve got:
1. Cabinet minister responsible for casinos AND policing who shuts down police unit after warnings of corruption;
#bcpoli
2. Lib donor/fundraiser & BCLC chair Richard Turner, presumably in possession of inside info re: Edgewater Casino’s dire financial straits, who buys shares in the privately held co that subsequently buys Edgewater out of bankruptcy;
3. That private co, Paragon, then bids on BC Place lands in a rammed-thru RFP issued at the bottom of the 2009 financial crisis. Only 1other bidder because, hey, financial crisis so there’s no liquidity anywhere.
In fact, total financial panic.
In fact, total financial panic.
4. Turner, now resigned frm BCLC, but on casino board, then lobbies BC Libs to make sure they don’t build a cheaper stadium roof, but instead build that half-billion dollar skylight roof, as if the BC Lions were the New England Patriots (who don’t even have a roof)
5. David Podmore goes all-in: BC Place will be full all the time with huge concerts (NOT). It’ll be just like LA Live, tho without the Lakers, Clippers & Kings.
NARRATOR: LA Live is an arena, not a stadium, & almost no music acts tour stadiums.
NARRATOR: LA Live is an arena, not a stadium, & almost no music acts tour stadiums.
6. When the casino doesn’t get its expansion permit, the BCLibs give them 50% off on their land deal, IN THE HOTTEST REAL ESTATE BOOM in North America.
Would you also like $20M in construction incentives w that? Yes? Here you go. 💵💵💰💰💰 #bcpoli
Would you also like $20M in construction incentives w that? Yes? Here you go. 💵💵💰💰💰 #bcpoli
7. Meanwhile BCLC gets hit with repeated scandals of money-laundering, all waved away as a nothingburger.
LOTS of businesspeople carry hundreds of thousands of dollars in shopping bags, you dumb rubes.
LOTS of businesspeople carry hundreds of thousands of dollars in shopping bags, you dumb rubes.
8. This goes on for years, & nobody thinks anything’s wrong.
9. Then BCLC’s own CEO, who is negotiating a new, more advantageous cash split for casino owners, is simultaneously secretly negotiating his own salary deal with, you guessed it, CASINO OWNERS.
Conflict of interest inquiry shrugs.
Conflict of interest inquiry shrugs.
10. Meanwhile planeloads continue arriving from Macau—global hotbed of org crime & money-laundering—to play at River Rock.
11. When BCLC goes looking for a new head of compliance, where else would to look but the same guy who ran compliance at River Rock’s owner? Fit like a glove.
12. BCLC was the BCLibs own little cash cow, but it was the BC taxpayers who got milked.
There’s a stench all over that joint, from the dirty little addiction secrets to dirty land deals to dirty money laundered into our housing crisis.
Public inquiry YES!!! #bcpoli Fin
There’s a stench all over that joint, from the dirty little addiction secrets to dirty land deals to dirty money laundered into our housing crisis.
Public inquiry YES!!! #bcpoli Fin
