Announcements

Assistant District Governor Tav MacPherson pinch-hit for president Vicki Pitt and seemed at first to have lost his authoritative touch with the assembled Rotarians, who were in a summery social mood and took a while to settle down and pay attention. With good humour, Tav prevailed, and after the opening formalities he introduced Public Relations Committee chair Gary Nazar for a presentation of the committee's goals and strategies for the coming year. Gary announced that his committee plans to produce a list of highlights of the Oak Bay Rotary club's activities each month and send it out to all local media. He also asked Oak Bay Rotarians to mount a personal word-of-mouth campaign to get the word out about all the good work we do, advising all members to talk up what our club is doing to their friends and acquaintances.

Jack Petrie then announced Ballgame Day, inviting all members to attend the closing game of the Victoria Seals on Sunday, August 23rd at Royal Athletic Park. Tickets are $12, and game time is at 1:30 p.m. Jack advised getting to the park at noon to be sure of getting a seat.

Guest Speaker

Lynne Murrary introduced our speakers for the day, two Canadian university students, Chris Pallai and Marc Sorrie (seen below receiving the legendary mugs from Tav and Barry) who are working with the RCMP this summer spreading the word about what citizens can do to prevent money laundering.

Chris and Marc began by quizzing us on our money laundering awareness. Using the latest Press-a-button technology we found out that most of us knew that marijuana is British Columbia's biggest business. Our two guests painted a picture of how this makes BC a mecca of money laundering. Marijuana is a cash crop and the growers and sellers all deal in cash. Their problem is how to make all that cash look legitimate. Our guests described many of the subterfuges dealers and growers use to conceal the source of all their illegally earned cash. Many involve purchases of goods that can then be resold to give the appearance of legitimate income. Another maneuver the speakers described was buying a property at below market value and convincing the seller to accept an additional payment in cash. Possibly the most common laundering method is to deposit cash in bank accounts or buy bank drafts in amounts under $10,000. The law requires us to report any suspicious transaction involving $10,000 or more. Laundered money provides financial support for drug traffickers, terrorists, arms dealers and other criminals in the billions of dollars. Laundered money can be used to create businesses that appear legitimate but create unfair competition for truly legitimate businesses. Our guests' advice was to be careful in dealing in any transaction involving large amounts of cash. In short, the talk covered:
• Why criminals launder money
• The methods money launderers use
• How to identify a suspicious transaction
• How your business can be used to facilitate the laundering process
• The role of FINTRAC (Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada)

For more information visit this site.

Barry Mutter thanked Chris and Marc for their interesting and informative talk.