The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,6
authorities say?”
Theresa’s face went blank.
Ava asked, “The fund was registered, wasn’t it? Surely the securities and exchange commission looked into it.”
“I never heard about any commission, and I have no idea if it was registered.”
“Theresa, the Ontario Securities Commission has an investment funds branch. In order to operate legally in the province, Emerald Lion had to be registered with them.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“Well, then, there are the police. Surely you went to them?”
“One of the other people who lost money did, but then decided not to pursue it.”
“And why not?” Ava asked.
Theresa’s face was pinched. She glanced at Jennie, questions in her eyes.
“They were scared,” Jennie Lee said.
“Of what?”
Jennie said to Theresa, “You can trust Ava, I told you that. She’s helped people with bigger problems than yours and she knows how to keep her mouth shut. Don’t you, Ava.”
“Mummy, I’m not sure —”
“Theresa, tell her what happened,” Jennie insisted.
“Cash,” said Theresa.
Ava blinked. “Now I’m past confused.”
“They all gave this Lam cash,” Jennie said.
“It was my brother’s idea,” said Theresa. “He was talking to a friend who owns some Vietnamese grocery stores with dead cash registers that he was taking the cash out of. The problem was, he had too much cash to spend without raising attention. I mean, try buying a car with cash, or a house. And then he was afraid of Revenue Canada and the police. You just can’t put it in the bank anymore without them asking a hundred questions. So he hooked up with Lam.”
“And what did Lam do with the cash?”
“He said he had an arrangement with Bank Linno, from Indonesia, I was told. They had a branch in Toronto. He would deposit the cash into the fund account there. He told them he had hundreds of small investors in the fund and that he collected cash from them every week. So, according to him, he could deposit it regularly without any of the fuss or bother he’d get from the Canadian banks.”
“How many investors were there?”
Theresa shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but not hundreds, because you had to be able to put in at least one hundred thousand in cash to start.”
“Everyone put in cash?”
“Of course. That was the purpose.”
“You mean money laundering was the purpose?”
“We just wanted to be able to spend our money without having the government on our backs.”
“So you put cash in and you got cheques back from a supposedly reputable financial fund, right?”
“Yes.”
“And those cheques were deposited into the bank in Indonesia?”
“Yes.”
“So no questions from the bank, and you could withdraw the cash as you wanted, without any worries.”
“Yes.”
“Did you report that income to Revenue Canada?”
“No. Lam said we didn’t have to,” Theresa said, fidgeting with her napkin.
“That’s nonsense. The fund would have had to issue T5 slips for all the payments it made.”
“They didn’t send us anything. Just a monthly report of how much money we had in the fund.”
“Did they tell you how it was invested?”
“No.”
“These people don’t have much trust in the government or the banks,” Jennie said to Ava, as if Theresa weren’t sitting next to her.
“No, I guess not, but putting their faith in a fund that was probably unregulated and unregistered, and whose main attraction was that it was run by a fellow Vietnamese, doesn’t seem to have worked out so well,” Ava said. She saw Theresa’s face flush. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be harsh,” she added.
“No, you are just speaking the truth.”
“Theresa, just how long were you in the fund?”
“More than two years.”
“How much were you paid over that time?”
“More than two hundred thousand dollars.”
“My God. Just how much money did you have in it?”
“Close to three million dollars.”
Ava thought she hadn’t heard correctly. “Do you mean the fund had three million in it?”
“No, it had more than thirty million, from what we can figure. My family had three million in it.”
“How did you —” Ava began.
Jennie said, “Theresa, I’d like another tea. Do you think you could get me one? And Ava, how about you? Another water?”
Theresa seemed only too happy to get away from the table. When she was out of earshot, Jennie said to Ava, “I know what you’re going to ask, and I don’t think you should. Does it really matter how they got that kind of cash? They all work hard and they save hard. Accept it at that. This is embarrassing enough for her.”
“Mummy, by not declaring income they were already breaking the law. Laundering the money compounds the severity.”