Canada’s Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC) is on a roll lately, after fining casinos almost CA$200,000 (US$144,564) and the British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) CA$1m (US$722,823) in recent months. Its latest target is the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA), alleging several violations of compliance and anti-money laundering (AML) rules and levying a fine of almost CA$1.2m (US$867,387) in the process.
The First Nations group runs seven casinos in the province, as well as the PlayNow online gambling platform. FINTRAC claims that the operator failed to submit suspicious transaction reports despite having reasonable grounds to do so and that its compliance policies weren’t up to scratch.
intends to appeal the financial penalty in federal court
SIGA doesn’t agree with the allegations and intends to appeal the financial penalty in federal court. It rejected the findings and said that no instances of money laundering or criminal activity were found at any of its casinos.
The BCLC is already in the middle of legal action regarding its own penalty, claiming that FINTRAC “ambushed” it with the fine, saying it didn’t get proper notice for the examination and that it didn’t follow standard procedures.
