A Toronto-area man has been fined $100,000 after he quietly pleaded guilty to possession and fraudulent use of thousands of counterfeit $2 coins after depositing the fakes into Canada’s banking system, Global News has learned.
During a brief court appearance in Newmarket on Dec. 9, 2022, That Daixiong He, 69, of Richmond Hill, Ont., admitted he was guilty for his use of fake toonies.
His plea came after he was caught injecting thousands of fake toonies into Canada’s banking system by making large deposits into several of his personal accounts at BMO, HSBC and RBC.
There also is a second person of interest in this case who appears to have escaped a deportation attempt.
Global News was unable to reach Mr. He for comment. He received no prison time, even though he faced a maximum sentence of 14 years in jail.
Ontario General Court Justice Amit Ghosh fined Mr. He $100,000 after he admitted to breaching two sections of the Criminal Code (452 a and 450 b) for “uttering and possessing” counterfeit $2 coins between Jan. 4, 2021, and Nov. 12, 2021 “without lawful justification or excuse.”
The Crown later agreed to stay the second charge of possessing fake toonies after Mr. He paid his fine by electronic bank draft, court records show.
His guilty plea came after a probe by the RCMP’s Trans-National Serious and Organized Crime unit in Toronto, led by Supt. Ann Koenig, with involvement by Fintrac, the federal government’s financial intelligence agency.
Mr. He’s arrest was announced with fanfare in May 2022 after a flood of fake toonies began circulating in Greater Toronto during the summer of 2020.
The fake $2 coins at the centre of the counterfeiting scheme became known as “Camel Toe Toonies.” That’s because counterfeit experts spotted the fake coins by the outsized toes on the polar bear’s right paw on the fake coins.
The genuine coin on the left versus the counterfeit on the right. Genuine: Fine details of the bear’s paws. 2a: The polar bear’s paw in the counterfeit is misshapen and looks like Camel toes.
RCMP
Richmond Hill defence counsel Thomas Richards, who represented Mr. He, said his client had possessed “a significant amount” of fake toonies, without saying how many. Mr. He “divested” himself of all his fake toonies a few months before his arrest, Richards added, without elaborating.
That’s when Global News learned previously undisclosed details of the RCMP investigation into Mr. He’s actions, including how up to 40,000 fake toonies were injected into the Canadian banking system by simply depositing them at three Toronto-area banks.
The RCMP launched the investigation into counterfeit two-dollar coins circulating in Toronto in July 2021 after the Royal Canadian Mint found a high level of fakes when they statistically sampled large boxes of coins to determine percentages of genuine coins versus fakes, according to evidence in the case.
After police investigators obtained several production orders to force banks to disclose account and transaction information, Daixiong He was identified as a suspect who had made multiple, large bank deposits of counterfeit two-dollar coins between Jan. 4, 2021, and Nov. 12, 2021.
Investigators also learned:
On July 26, 2021, Mr. He deposited 499 two-dollar coins into an RBC account, located at 6021 Steeles Ave. E. in Scarborough. The RCMP’s National-Anti Counterfeiting Bureau (NACB) confirmed the coins were counterfeit.
On Oct. 2, 2021, Mr. He deposited 500 two-dollar coins into an HSBC account, located at 6025 Steeles Ave. E., Scarborough. The NACB confirmed those coins were fakes.
On Nov. 8, 2021, the RCMP observed Mr. He deposit a large amount of cash and 3,001 two-dollar coins, at the RBC located at 6021 Steeles Ave. E., Scarborough. Again, the NACB confirmed the coins were counterfeit.
On Nov. 12, 2021, Mr. He deposited 500 two-dollar coins into an account at the BMO located at 1 Spadina Rd, in Richmond Hill, Ontario. BMO officials examined those coins and deemed them counterfeits. The RCMP then inspected the coins, also concluded they were counterfeit and seized them.
In the period before the police and Mint began seizing confirmed counterfeit coins, RCMP investigators learned, Mr. He made similarly large $2 coin deposits totaling approximately $80,000, or about 40,000 toonies that were suspected fakes, making it the biggest fake toonie case in Canadian history.
Mr. He did not admit to making the Camel Toe fake toonies.
Rather, he admitted that because of the circumstances of how he received the coins — which were not revealed to the court — he ought to have exercised more caution before depositing them and was therefore willfully blind when he used the counterfeit money.
Asked if his client was a member of an organized crime group, lawyer Thomas Richards replied: “I can tell you there was no information in the disclosure (of the police evidence by the Crown attorney) that would tie him to organized crime. It was just simply him.”
Thomas declined to say where Mr. He obtained his fake toonies, but then added: “There was a person of interest that the police were interested in pinning this on. He was illegal in Canada but couldn’t be removed or deported because his passport expired. So, he was continuing to operate in perhaps a criminal manner inside Canada, known to police, but CBSA (Canada Border Services Agency) couldn’t remove him because he didn’t have a valid travel document.”
Thomas declined to name this person of interest or nationality, but insisted: “That’s the real story.”
Richards said that this person has not been charged, as far as he knows.
“He’s the real story. He is a known criminal,” Richards said.
The person without legal status in Canada was detained by the RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency and an attempt to deport him was made. But because the person didn’t have a passport or other travel document, and because their country of origin was either unable or unwilling to provide a new travel document to him in a timely way, the CBSA was forced to release him from its custody, and the person remains at large inside Canada.
CBSA can detain people without legal status in Canada for periods ranging from 48 hours to 30 days to prepare deportation proceedings against them, but must get permission from a federal immigration tribunal to extend that detention.
“He’s out there, the police know he’s a criminal, but they can’t do anything,” Richards added.
Global News asked the Mounties about the lawyer’s comments and whether another suspect was linked to the Toronto fake toonie case who remains at large. An RCMP spokesman did not deny it and said: “Only in the event that an investigation results in the laying of criminal charges, would the RCMP confirm the identity of individual(s) involved. Therefore, I cannot provide further information.”
Richards declined to share further details about Mr. He including his occupation, or the other person of interest, saying his client had “a right to remain mostly anonymous.”
The Royal Canadian Mint began sampling big bank-supplied boxes filled with 1,000 $2 coins in the Toronto area in the summer of 2021 to determine the extent of the counterfeiting operation. That was long after Canadian coin collectors complained of a tsunami of counterfeit toonies that had landed in the GTA in July 2020. The Mint has until this day refused to publicly disclose the results of its own coin sampling efforts.
Internal Mint documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show it did share and forward its coin sampling findings — the percentage of fakes it was finding in $1,000 boxes of coins — with the RCMP to advance the criminal investigation that led to charges against Daixiong He.
The Royal Canadian Mint in 2021 was quietly sampling boxes of 500 $2 coins to detect fake Toonies and counterfeits. The Crown Corporation has kept its results secret.
Royal Canadian Mint photo obtained byGlobal News
Coin collectors in the Toronto region were already doing their own amateur sampling of the same boxes of toonie rolls of coins, which can be ordered from banks. Numismatic enthusiasts were coming up with five fakes in every box of 500 coins, a one per cent counterfeit rate.
The flood of fake toonies in the GTA — which eventually spread across Canada and continue to circulate to this day — caused the Mint to draft a special plan to manage “a contamination in the circulation coinage system,” according to a Mint document that outlines its provisions.
The Mint and an entity called the Canadian Circulation Coin Distribution System even have a policy guide on how to manage the “contamination” of the Canadian circulating coin environment when counterfeit coins are detected, the Access to Information documents reveal.
An Internal Mint document shows how it manages a counterfeit coin “contamination” in Canada. It states the “magnitude (size) of the contamination informs the course of action.”
The internal Royal Canadian Mint documents suggest the federal Crown corporation has minted or manufactured more than one billion $2 coins since 1996, when 375.5 million of them were made. The Mint started manufacturing $1 coins, or loonies in 1987.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
