My beloved province is home to so many financial ruses and scams.
This story amused me more than it should have.
Almost six months after the B.C. government asked post-secondary institutions to stop taking large cash payments for tuition, many [universities] have closed the loophole identified in Peter German’s report on money laundering. [German is a former high-ranking RCMP officer leading a province-wide investigation into money laundering and the gambling industry.]
Contained among the recommendations … was concern that B.C. universities and colleges could be vulnerable to money laundering.
The report included an example of a student who went to an unnamed college with a duffel bag containing $9,000 in cash and asked to deposit it.
“Peter German has advised that people are paying thousands of dollars in suspicious cash for multiple semesters in advance and then seeking refunds by cheque,” Attorney General David Eby said at a new conference in May. “Our post-secondary institutions must not be used to launder money, and we are asking them to review their policies to put a stop to it.”
Since then, many of B.C.’s public post-secondary institutions have moved to end the practice, including Thompson Rivers University and the University of the Fraser Valley. …
Several schools are still reviewing their policies. [My employer] Kwantlen Polytechnic University … still accepts cash but is “looking at the possibility of moving to a fully online payment model and recently adopted a new online payment method for international students.”
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