Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

In 1982 three of the most powerful men in Asia met in Hong Kong. They would decide how Hong Kong would be handed over to the People's Republic of China and how Chinese business tycoons Henry Fok and Li Ka-Shing would help Deng Xiaoping realize the Chinese Communist Party's domestic and global ambitions. That meeting would not only change Vancouver but the world. Billions of dollars in Chinese investment would soon reach the shores of North America's Pacific coast. B.C. government casinos became a tool for global criminals to import deadly narcotics into Canada and launder billions of drug cash into Vancouver real estate. And it didn't happen by accident. A cast of accomplices - governments hungry for revenue, casino, and real estate companies with ties to shady offshore wealth, professional facilitators including lawyers and bankers, an aimless RCMP that gave organized crime room to grow - all combined to cause this tragedy. There was greed, folly, corruption, conspiracy, and wilful blindness.

Decades of bad policy allowed drug cartels, first and foremost the Big Circle Boys - powerful transnational narco-kingpins with ties to corrupt Chinese officials, real estate tycoons, and industrialists - to gain influence over significant portions of Canada's economy. Many looked the other way while B.C.'s primary industry, real estate, ballooned with dirty cash. But the unintended social consequences are now clear: a fentanyl overdose crisis raging in major cities throughout North America and life spans falling for the first time in modern Canada, and a runaway housing market that has devastated middle-class income earners. This story isn't just about real estate and fentanyl overdoses, though. Sam Cooper has uncovered evidence that shows the primary actors in so-called "Vancouver Model" money laundering have effectively made Canada's west coast a headquarters for corporate and industrial espionage by the CCP. And these ruthless entrepreneurs have used Vancouver and Canada to export their criminal model to other countries around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Cooper finds that the RCMP's 2019 arrest of its top intelligence official, Cameron Ortis, raises many frightening questions. Could Chinese transnational criminals and state actors targeting

Canada's industrial and technological crown jewels have gained protection from the Mounties? Could China and Iran have insight into Canada's deepest national security secrets and influence on investigations? Ortis had oversight of many investigations into transnational money laundering networks and insight into sensitive probes of suspects seeking to undermine Canada's democracy and infiltrate the United States, according to the evidence Cooper has found.

Wilful Blindness is a powerful narrative that follows the investigators who refused to go along with institutionalized negligence and corruption that enabled the Vancouver Model, with Cooper drawing on extensive interviews with the whistle-blowers; thousands of pages of government and court documents obtained through legal applications; and large caches of confidential material available exclusively to Cooper.

The book culminates with a shocking revelation showing how deeply Canada has been compromised, and what needs to happen, to get the nation back on track with its "Five Eyes" allies.

1139413184
Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

In 1982 three of the most powerful men in Asia met in Hong Kong. They would decide how Hong Kong would be handed over to the People's Republic of China and how Chinese business tycoons Henry Fok and Li Ka-Shing would help Deng Xiaoping realize the Chinese Communist Party's domestic and global ambitions. That meeting would not only change Vancouver but the world. Billions of dollars in Chinese investment would soon reach the shores of North America's Pacific coast. B.C. government casinos became a tool for global criminals to import deadly narcotics into Canada and launder billions of drug cash into Vancouver real estate. And it didn't happen by accident. A cast of accomplices - governments hungry for revenue, casino, and real estate companies with ties to shady offshore wealth, professional facilitators including lawyers and bankers, an aimless RCMP that gave organized crime room to grow - all combined to cause this tragedy. There was greed, folly, corruption, conspiracy, and wilful blindness.

Decades of bad policy allowed drug cartels, first and foremost the Big Circle Boys - powerful transnational narco-kingpins with ties to corrupt Chinese officials, real estate tycoons, and industrialists - to gain influence over significant portions of Canada's economy. Many looked the other way while B.C.'s primary industry, real estate, ballooned with dirty cash. But the unintended social consequences are now clear: a fentanyl overdose crisis raging in major cities throughout North America and life spans falling for the first time in modern Canada, and a runaway housing market that has devastated middle-class income earners. This story isn't just about real estate and fentanyl overdoses, though. Sam Cooper has uncovered evidence that shows the primary actors in so-called "Vancouver Model" money laundering have effectively made Canada's west coast a headquarters for corporate and industrial espionage by the CCP. And these ruthless entrepreneurs have used Vancouver and Canada to export their criminal model to other countries around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Cooper finds that the RCMP's 2019 arrest of its top intelligence official, Cameron Ortis, raises many frightening questions. Could Chinese transnational criminals and state actors targeting

Canada's industrial and technological crown jewels have gained protection from the Mounties? Could China and Iran have insight into Canada's deepest national security secrets and influence on investigations? Ortis had oversight of many investigations into transnational money laundering networks and insight into sensitive probes of suspects seeking to undermine Canada's democracy and infiltrate the United States, according to the evidence Cooper has found.

Wilful Blindness is a powerful narrative that follows the investigators who refused to go along with institutionalized negligence and corruption that enabled the Vancouver Model, with Cooper drawing on extensive interviews with the whistle-blowers; thousands of pages of government and court documents obtained through legal applications; and large caches of confidential material available exclusively to Cooper.

The book culminates with a shocking revelation showing how deeply Canada has been compromised, and what needs to happen, to get the nation back on track with its "Five Eyes" allies.

34.95 In Stock
Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

Wilful Blindness, How a network of narcos, tycoons and CCP agents Infiltrated the West

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Overview

In 1982 three of the most powerful men in Asia met in Hong Kong. They would decide how Hong Kong would be handed over to the People's Republic of China and how Chinese business tycoons Henry Fok and Li Ka-Shing would help Deng Xiaoping realize the Chinese Communist Party's domestic and global ambitions. That meeting would not only change Vancouver but the world. Billions of dollars in Chinese investment would soon reach the shores of North America's Pacific coast. B.C. government casinos became a tool for global criminals to import deadly narcotics into Canada and launder billions of drug cash into Vancouver real estate. And it didn't happen by accident. A cast of accomplices - governments hungry for revenue, casino, and real estate companies with ties to shady offshore wealth, professional facilitators including lawyers and bankers, an aimless RCMP that gave organized crime room to grow - all combined to cause this tragedy. There was greed, folly, corruption, conspiracy, and wilful blindness.

Decades of bad policy allowed drug cartels, first and foremost the Big Circle Boys - powerful transnational narco-kingpins with ties to corrupt Chinese officials, real estate tycoons, and industrialists - to gain influence over significant portions of Canada's economy. Many looked the other way while B.C.'s primary industry, real estate, ballooned with dirty cash. But the unintended social consequences are now clear: a fentanyl overdose crisis raging in major cities throughout North America and life spans falling for the first time in modern Canada, and a runaway housing market that has devastated middle-class income earners. This story isn't just about real estate and fentanyl overdoses, though. Sam Cooper has uncovered evidence that shows the primary actors in so-called "Vancouver Model" money laundering have effectively made Canada's west coast a headquarters for corporate and industrial espionage by the CCP. And these ruthless entrepreneurs have used Vancouver and Canada to export their criminal model to other countries around the world including Australia and New Zealand. Meanwhile, Cooper finds that the RCMP's 2019 arrest of its top intelligence official, Cameron Ortis, raises many frightening questions. Could Chinese transnational criminals and state actors targeting

Canada's industrial and technological crown jewels have gained protection from the Mounties? Could China and Iran have insight into Canada's deepest national security secrets and influence on investigations? Ortis had oversight of many investigations into transnational money laundering networks and insight into sensitive probes of suspects seeking to undermine Canada's democracy and infiltrate the United States, according to the evidence Cooper has found.

Wilful Blindness is a powerful narrative that follows the investigators who refused to go along with institutionalized negligence and corruption that enabled the Vancouver Model, with Cooper drawing on extensive interviews with the whistle-blowers; thousands of pages of government and court documents obtained through legal applications; and large caches of confidential material available exclusively to Cooper.

The book culminates with a shocking revelation showing how deeply Canada has been compromised, and what needs to happen, to get the nation back on track with its "Five Eyes" allies.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780888903143
Publisher: Optimum Publishing International
Publication date: 05/21/2021
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 392
Sales rank: 915,693
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.88(d)

About the Author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sam Cooper is an award-winning Canadian journalist, cited as one of Canada's top investigative reporters. He started with Vancouver Province in 2009, where he started to investigate political corruption and real estate money laundering in Vancouver. Cooper broke the B.C. casino money laundering and "E-Pirate" story in 2017 at the Vancouver Sun and has now filed more than 50 exclusive stories on the widening scandal. Since winning the Jack Webster Award for student journalist at Langara College in 2005, he has won several prizes, including a Canada National Newspaper Award and a Jack Webster Award, for his reporting with the Vancouver Province on abuse of seniors in B.C. care homes. Most recently, Cooper and his Global News reporting team won the Jack Webster 2019 Excellence in Feature/Enterprise reporting - Television for their submission: Casino Diaries Cooper holds an HBA from the University of Toronto, a Journalism degree from Langara College.

Table of Contents

Foreword | ix

1 | The Whales | 1

2 | Section 86 | 19

3 | Vancouver Model 1.0 | 29

4 | The Mission In Hong Kong | 47

5 | Triads Entering Canada | 57

6 | Project Fallout | 73

7 | The Casino Diaries | 89

8 | The PLA Whale | 101

9 | The Illegal Gaming Unit | 129

10 | Killing the Golden Goose | 165

11 | Narco City | 189

12 | Ockham's Razor | 209

13 | Silver and Gold | 249

14 | Known Knowns | 277

15 | Compromised Nodes | 311

16 | Strike Back Hard | 355

17 | Afterword: Infinite Connectivity | 373

Acknowledgments | 391

Appendix A | 393

Appendix B | 403

Appendix C | 417

Appendix D | 425

Index | 429

What People are Saying About This

Solomon Yue

"This is a must-read book for concerned citizens who want to keep their democratic societies free."

Optimum Publishing International - Dr. Charles Burton

"Explosive revelations that expose our government's complicity with the Chinese Communist Party in undermining Canada's national security and democracy."

Dr. Charles Burton Senior Fellow, Macdonald-Laurier Institute, Centre for Advancing Canada’s Interests Abroad Non-Resident Senior Fellow, European Values Center for Security Policy.

Terry Glavin

One of the more useful methodologies in investigative journalism can be reduced to a simple maxim: "follow the money." Journalists who undertake difficult and dangerous assignments of the type Sam has pursued in this book will sooner or later encounter an encumbrance to the purpose of revealing the truth that emerges from the work of uncovering facts, and it's this. Among the political vices, the thing about corruption is that the more widespread it is, and the higher up it goes in the political establishment, the fewer people want to talk about it. This book is a testament to Sam's persistence and determination to follow the money - hundreds of millions of dollars in dirty drug money, trunkloads of $20 bills carried into casinos in hockey bags, money laundered from China by Beijing's "whale gambler" princelings and their back-alley go-betweens in Metro Vancouver. It's about the Canadian politicians who saw benefits in a seedy underground industry that outweighed whatever harm they noticed in sky-high real estate prices and the corpse heaps of dead fentanyl users. It's a shocking story, told by a brave reporter who has forced a public conversation about corruption in Canada, how widespread it has become and how high up in the political establishment it has spread. It's also a ripping yarn.

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