Reported by: Graeme Wood, Glacier Media

B.C. real estate brokerage firm LeHomes Realty has been fined $282,397 for not complying with the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.

The brokerage is officially known as Pan Pacific Platinum Real Estate Services Inc. and formerly known as New Coast Realty, which has a history of regulatory findings against it.

LeHomes failed to submit a suspicious transaction report where there were reasonable grounds to suspect that transactions were related to a money laundering offence, according to findings from the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) issued in a statement Oct. 6.

Numerous other violations were found. LeHomes failed to ensure that an appointed person was responsible for implementing a compliance program; failed to develop and apply sufficient compliance policies and procedures for its regulatory obligations relating to third-party determination, receipt of funds records and business relationships and ongoing monitoring; and failed to take into consideration the money laundering or terrorist activity financing risk of its products and delivery channels, its geographic location or its clients and business relationships.

Among other violations, LeHomes failed to develop and maintain a written and ongoing training program for its staff on anti-money laundering (AML), nor was there any means to test the effectiveness of its policies and procedures.

Read full report: https://biv.com/article/2022/10/lehomes-realty-fined-282k-anti-money-laundering-violations?amp