Every year, millions of dollars in cash enters and exits Canada stuffed inside envelopes, shirt pockets and bags.
But only a tiny fraction is moved by criminals. The rest is transported by average Canadians and visitors who are taking $10,000 or more into or out of the country.
Many people are moving the money to support their family members who have just immigrated to Canada. The cash is often destined to be used for a down payment on a house or car.
Sometimes the money is being transported out of the country to assist family members in other parts of the world.
“Individuals are taking currency to family members overseas, often in a Middle Eastern country where there is less comfort with banks,” said Cyndee Todgham Cherniak, a lawyer who founded LexSage, which deals with international trade and tax law.
“So, they don’t want to wire transfer the money overseas. They bring the currency with them.”
She said Canadians need to understand that carrying large amounts of cash doesn’t mean someone is up to anything illegal. Cash can be viewed as the safest way to move money in some parts of the world.
Toronto lawyer Cyndee Todgham Cherniak founded the law firm LexSage, which deals with international trade and tax law. (CBC)
Every year, Todgham Cherniak gets up to 40 calls from people who have had their money seized by CBSA and are trying to get it back.
It’s not illegal to move $10,000 or more across the border, however, people have to declare that money before they cross. If they don’t, it can be taken.
“The most common scenario is someone has not converted US dollars into Canadian dollars properly, said Todgham Cherniak. “So a person may have less than $10,000 US, but when converted into Canadian dollars it is more than $10,000 Canadian.
“We’ve had clients where they are off by $9.32 and the currency gets seized.”
Most of the time, after a fine ranging from $250 to $5,000 is paid, the money is promptly returned, according to the CBSA.
But in some cases it can take months, even years, for people to get their money back, said Todgham Cherniak.
If the CBSA suspects the money could be used to fund terrorism or is the proceeds of crime, it may never be returned.
CBSA officers have confiscated $9,168,022 suspected to be the proceeds of crime in the last three years. (CBC)
“In some cases it is the individual’s life savings that they’re bringing into the country or they’re taking to their family,” said Todgham Cherniak. “And sometimes they’re left with not even enough money to pay for a taxi cab home.”
Bashir Zummeit, Todgham Cherniak’s client, is facing that hardship now.
Two years ago, the Toronto barbershop owner and father of six planned to travel to his homeland of Libya to visit his mother. He saved $5,000 over a period of years to take to his extended family.
Friends asked him to deliver money to their families as well. In the end, Zummeit had $19,000 US in cash to transport.
Zummeit said he didn’t think he could safely transfer the money electronically because Libya’s banking system has been in crisis for several years.
“There’s no business, no money, and people fighting,” he said. “And those families, they’re lucky to have someone working outside who will send money to them so they can eat.
“They are suffering, they are desperate for money.”
Bashir Zummeit owns a barbershop in Toronto. When he tried to fly to Libya with $19,000 US in cash it was seized by the CBSA. (Submitted by Bashir Zummeit)
On March 31, 2018, he packed the money into envelopes, stuffed them into his jacket pocket and his bag, and went to board a plane to Libya. He didn’t declare the money.
Todgham Cherniak said the process for reporting cash exports isn’t easy.
People have to go to a CBSA office and fill out a form stating that they’re going to be transporting more than $10,000. She said some of her clients haven’t even been able to locate the CBSA office to do that.
“The process is really obscure and a lot of people don’t understand that they have to report exports of currency, but they also don’t know where to look for the CBSA office,” she said.
Zummeit spotted a CBSA officer just before he got on the plane and told her he was carrying more than $10,000 US. The CBSA officer seized the cash.
The officer said the money wouldn’t be returned until it was determined the cash wasn’t going to be used for anything illegal.
CBSA officials seized $26,588 in suspected proceeds of a crime at the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel in 2017. (CBSA)
Zummeit said he felt shame and embarrassment that he had let his family and friends down.
He hired Todgham Cherniak. They collected paperwork from Zummeit’s friends to prove that the money came from legitimate sources.
They appealed the seizure, but the money still hasn’t been returned.
Zummeit could use the funds. His barbershop has been closed for months because of COVID-19.
“Please have a heart especially after this circumstance, give me my money back,” said Zummeit, “That I can use it for my family when I have six kids and I haven’t been working.”
The delays in getting the money back don’t surprise criminology professor Stephen Schneider. He’s been studying money laundering since the 1980s.
The Saint Mary’s University professor said it can be difficult to separate money earned legitimately from money made from illegal activity.
“It takes a long time to conduct the kind of investigative background checks on individuals to determine if … the funds are linked to illegal activity,” said Schneider.
“There’s certainly not enough resources within the [CBSA] or the RCMP to do that kind of background check.”
Stephen Schneider is a criminology professor at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. (Submitted by Stephen Schneider)
Schneider said most money travelling across the border is for legitimate reasons and he believes the majority of money the CBSA seizes comes from China.
The Chinese government has a $50,000 limit on the amount of money it lets its people remove from the country, said Schneider. But people sometimes take more than that.
Schneider said that is not a criminal offence in Canada, so it’s not considered the proceeds of crime or money laundering.
“In my opinion, without a doubt, the largest source of cash that comes across the Canadian border, undocumented cash, unreported cash, would be capital flight from China,” said Schneider.
Capital flight refers to the rapid movement of large sums of money or assets out of a country.
Schneider said the majority of that money goes to help Chinese immigrants, usually in B.C.
The CBSA would only say there are many reasons why a traveller would bring large sums of currency into the country, agreeing that most of the time it’s for legitimate purposes.
It can be difficult to separate legitimately earned cash from money made from illegal activity, said Schneider. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)
Todgham Cherniak said the CBSA needs to change its ways.
She said it should give officers greater latitude to levy fines as opposed to seizing money. It should also speed up the appeals process, she said.
The CBSA said its officers are trained to detect deceit and other signs of criminality, and there are no plans to amend the current appeals process.
The agency has also started a new Trade Fraud and Trade Based Money Laundering Centre of Expertise. The centre will “identify, interdict, investigate and prosecute trade fraud,” said a CBSA spokesperson in an email.
Zummeit only wants one change with the CBSA. He said it should make an exception for people trying to transport cash to help their families overseas.
“Our circumstances [are] completely different from anybody else,” he said. “We took that money for our family. Nobody else. We have hearts and we have to help.”
EDMONTON – Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his career as the New Jersey Devils closed out their Western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Monday.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored for the Devils (8-5-2) who have won three of their last four on the heels on a four-game losing skid.
The Oilers (6-6-1) had their modest two-game winning streak snapped.
Calvin Pickard made 13 stops between the pipes for Edmonton.
TAKEAWAYS
Devils: In addition to his goal, Bratt picked up his 12th assist of the young season to give him nine points in his last eight games and now 15 points overall. Nico Hischier remains in the team lead, picking up an assist of his own to give him 16 points for the campaign. He has a point in all but four games this season.
Oilers: Forward Leon Draisaitl was held pointless after recording six points in his previous two games and nine points in his previous four. Draisaitl usually has strong showings against the Devils, coming into the contest with an eight-game point streak against New Jersey and 11 goals in 17 games.
KEY MOMENT
New Jersey took a 2-0 lead on the power play with 3:26 remaining in the second period as Hischier made a nice feed into the slot to Bratt, who wired his third of the season past Pickard.
KEY RETURN?
Oilers star forward and captain Connor McDavid took part in the optional morning skate for the Oilers, leading to hopes that he may be back sooner rather than later. McDavid has been expected to be out for two to three weeks with an ankle injury suffered during the first shift of last Monday’s loss in Columbus.
OILERS DEAL FOR D-MAN
The Oilers have acquired defenceman Ronnie Attard from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenceman Ben Gleason.
The 6-foot-3 Attard has spent the past three season in the Flyers organization seeing action in 29 career games. The 25-year-old right-shot defender and Western Michigan University grad was originally selected by Philadelphia in the third round of the 2019 NHL Entry Draft. Attard will report to the Oilers’ AHL affiliate in Bakersfield.
UP NEXT
Devils: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday.
Oilers: Host the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 4, 2024.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and three touchdowns, and Kareem Hunt pounded into the end zone from two yards out in overtime to give the unbeaten Kansas City Chiefs a 30-24 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night.
DeAndre Hopkins had two touchdown receptions for the Chiefs (8-0), who drove through the rain for two fourth-quarter scores to take a 24-17 lead with 4:17 left. But then Kansas City watched as Baker Mayfield led the Bucs the other way in the final minute, hitting Ryan Miller in the end zone with 27 seconds to go in regulation time.
Tampa Bay (4-5) elected to kick the extra point and force overtime, rather than go for a two-point conversion and the win. And it cost the Buccaneers when Mayfield called tails and the coin flip was heads. Mahomes and the Chiefs took the ball, he was 5-for-5 passing on their drive in overtime, and Hunt finished his 106-yard rushing day with the deciding TD plunge.
Travis Kelce had 14 catches for 100 yards with girlfriend Taylor Swift watching from a suite, and Hopkins finished with eight catches for 86 yards as the Chiefs ran their winning streak to 14 dating to last season. They became the sixth Super Bowl champion to start 8-0 the following season.
Mayfield finished with 200 yards and two TDs passing for the Bucs, who have lost four of their last five.
It was a memorable first half for two players who had been waiting to play in Arrowhead Stadium.
The Bucs’ Rachaad White grew up about 10 minutes away in a tough part of Kansas City, but his family could never afford a ticket for him to see a game. He wound up on a circuitous path through Division II Nebraska-Kearney and a California junior college to Arizona State, where he eventually became of a third-round pick of Tampa Bay in the 2022 draft.
Two year later, White finally got into Arrowhead — and the end zone. He punctuated his seven-yard scoring run in the second quarter, which gave the Bucs a 7-3 lead, by nearly tossing the football into the second deck.
Then it was Hopkins’ turn in his first home game since arriving in Kansas City from a trade with the Titans.
The three-time All-Pro, who already had caught four passes, reeled in a third-down heave from Mahomes amid triple coverage for a 35-yard gain inside the Tampa Bay five-yard line. Three plays later, Mahomes found him in the back of the end zone, and Hopkins celebrated his first TD with the Chiefs with a dance from “Remember the Titans.”
Tampa Bay tried to seize control with consecutive scoring drives to start the second half. The first ended with a TD pass to Cade Otton, the latest tight end to shred the Chiefs, and Chase McLaughlin’s 47-yard field goal gave the Bucs a 17-10 lead.
The Chiefs answered in the fourth quarter. Mahomes marched them through the rain 70 yards for a tying touchdown pass, which he delivered to Samaje Perine while landing awkwardly and tweaking his left ankle, and then threw a laser to Hopkins on third-and-goal from the Buccaneers’ five-yard line to give Kansas City the lead.
Tampa Bay promptly went three-and-out, but its defence got the ball right back, and this time Mayfield calmly led his team down field. His capped the drive with a touchdown throw to Miller — his first career TD catch — with 27 seconds to go, and Tampa Bay elected to play for overtime.
UP NEXT
Buccaneers: Host the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Darcy Kuemper made 16 saves for his first shutout of the season and 32nd overall, helping the Los Angeles Kings beat the Nashville Predators 3-0 on Monday night.
Adrian Kempe had a goal and an assist and Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala also scored. The Kings have won two of their last three.
Juuse Saros made 24 saves for the Predators. They are 1-2-1 in their last four.
Kopitar opened the scoring with 6:36 remaining in the opening period. Saros denied the Kings captain’s first shot, but Kopitar collected the rebound below the goal line and banked it off the netminder’s skate.
Fiala, a former Predator, made it 2-0 35 seconds into the third.
The Kings held Nashville to just three third-period shots on goal, the first coming with 3:55 remaining and Saros pulled for an extra attacker.
Elsewhere in the NHL on Monday:
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DEVILS 3 OILERS 0
EDMONTON, Alta. (AP) — Jake Allen made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season and 26th of his NHL career, helping the New Jersey Devils close their western Canadian road trip with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Jesper Bratt had a goal and an assist and Stefan Noesen and Timo Meier also scored. The Devils improved to 8-5-2. They have won three of their last four after a four-game skid.
Calvin Pickard made 13 saves for Edmonton. The Oilers had won two straight.
