Among the items seized from currency exchange owner Farzam Mehdizadeh’s North York office were nine Ontario driver’s licences, and a brick of $20s wrapped in elastic bands and attached to a white bank envelope, with a $14,000 bank draft from a major Canadian bank tucked inside.That's what happens when you have special rules for special people.
Eventually, Mehdizadeh would be accused of laundering $100 million in just one year in Toronto and Montreal. He has yet to appear in court, and according to colleagues, he has left Canada for his native Iran.
A Global News investigation has found that Canada largely fails to effectively prosecute money-laundering cases, with just 321 convictions between 2000-2016. Roughly 809 cases were either stayed, withdrawn or dismissed, over that same time period, resulting in a conviction rate of around 27 per cent.**********
The RCMP believed he was just one suspect in a very large group of underground bankers, active in Toronto and Montreal especially, with links to real-estate money laundering.
RELATED: Those scofflaw "Canadians"...
A Toronto nightclub owner, Denis Mesumb, 43, an owner of the Tam Tam Weekend Lounge on Eglinton Ave. W. has been busted with a septum-busting 127 lbs. of cocaine stashed in a hidden compartment of his SUV.
