Canadian Mint Employee Accused Of Smuggling $180k Of Gold In His Rectum

My guess and this is just my opinion is that this was going on for a very long time and he was just the 'lugger' so to speak. My guess is that he only started being so sloppy and leaving such an obvious paper trail when extortion came into play. His actions and the evidence found in his safety deposit box seem to be the perfect plausible deniability and ammunition a lawyer would want to have him walk away and shift the focus to the mint.

The most obvious indicator of this and lets be series here is the fact hes going to Ottawa Gold Buyers and having 1) cheques issued 2) wiring money and 3) taking in pucks lol?

I say no way, and that there is a heck of a lot more Gold missing than what has been said and his attorney was protecting him

Seems highly likely to me as well.

This link contains a video of security footage.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/mint-e...um-1.3082843

So each time he set off the alarm as he passed through the security gate but the hand-held detector gave him a pass? Wouldn't it seem logical for security to suspect a malfunction of one of the two, given the hand-held didn't detect any cause for the gate alarm? Apparently not. And smuggling via body cavities is only a security risk at places such as prisons, border crossings or airlines but not a precious metals refinery handing millions of dollars of gold on a routine basis.

So we are to believe RCM didn't notice any missing gold through standard reconciliations processes AND their metal detection devices were not up to par. I guess the guy just got two times lucky. A shrug from RCM as much as to suggest "it" happens.

One of the reasons that I believe governments should not be in business is because there is absolutely no accountability.

Which reminds me once again of this:

"These accusations of theft laid in July sit uncomfortably with the 2009 news — covered nationally — that the Mint had 17,500 troy ounces of "unreconciled" gold product on its books. In other words, millions in gold was missing and the Mint was not entirely sure whether it was a record-keeping lag or some grand heist.

Even the RCMP was called in, finally concluding there was no evidence of a crime. Still, it looked bad.

"First and foremost," said an audit report, completed after much hand-wringing, "it was determined that the unreconciled difference was not the result of criminal activities, either by theft, fraud or reasons relating to data manipulations of the IT systems."

Well, if you say so."
http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/co...anadian-mint

You DO NOT have to fill out forms or report for non cash transactions. The link you provided assumes a non traceable transaction (cash, trade, etc...)I deal extensively in bullion and with bullion wholesalers dealers with amounts over 10k. The rules are clear.

Again, there is no requirement to report tracked transactions over 10K as long as an electronic trail exists and there is no suspicion of fraud (which is subject to opinion of the people performing the transaction). It's not uncommon to see transactions for those amount and significantly more occur daily in the bullion/scrap market without anyone bating an eye. It would be VERY difficult to prove by the court that the bullion dealer did not somehow perform due diligence (which he is expected to do). The system worked BECAUSE there was a trail and the offender did subsequently get caught. Cheques were issued and the money trail was followed.

Very true John. One problem with Fintrac is that it grew out of 9/11 and the need to curtail the movement of funds destined for terrorism but is now slowly creeping into other uses by the government. The rules are purposely loosely written in many cases to have people voluntarily cough up information they may not need to. Here is an example. I had sold some property in the USA and was bringing a cheque made out to my name for 57k. I was asked the standard 10K question at the border and I said no but I do have a cheque for 57k made out to me from my lawyer. I got pulled in and asked to fill out a fintrac form. I said I was not required by law but I would do it. After I was finished, I asked the supervisor to come out and educate his agent on the rules. My sarcastic comment didn't get a warm reception, and while the supervisor was tearing up the form, he said "Sir, you can go"....

If the concealment was done in a washroom stall, it is quite possible that when he exited, if he did not check the bottom of his shoes, he might have left a paper trail!

Hmm, what were the coins ?
Are they available to the public yet ?
If not, guilty.

According to one article:

"According to records, 18 pucks and dozens of gold coins were stolen between Nov. 27, 2014, and March 12, 2015, totaling $179,015.

Lawrence set off the mint's metal detector more often than other employees, but regularly passed a second manual search with a hand-held wand.

Lawrence was terminated following the incident, but Justice Peter Doody reserved decision on the case until Nov. 9."

It's Doody's duty to determine if Lawrence do the dirty deed.