Five years in prison for not having paid$ 10 Million in fines

Archival Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Sy Veng Chun and Leng Ky Lech in 2014.

Michael Nguyen

Wednesday, 21 February, 2018 01:00

UPDATE
Wednesday, 21 February, 2018 01:00

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A senior couple already convicted of having laundered $ 100 million for a drug dealer has been sentenced to an additional five years of prison because he has not yet paid fines of nearly $10 million.

Sy Veng Chun and his wife Leng Ky Lech, between the ages of 70 and 55 years, were hoping to convince the justice that they no longer had a penny since their sentencing to eight years in penitentiary in march 2015.

“Mr Chun told the court that he does not remain two under, they lived day to day with meager pensions,” explained the judge Manlio Del Negro, during the recent hearing at the palais de justice of Montreal.

But these arguments were not enough to avoid another prison sentence, following one of the largest investigations of money laundering in the history of Quebec.

Shops

Chun and Lech, originating in Cambodia, ran a small exchange office in the chinatown of Montreal. They were also selling jewelry and precious metals through their companies, A&A money Services inc. and Peng Heng Gold/Gold, inc.

But under their airs of traders without stories, they then bleached the money of Daniel Muir, a trafficker since died who ran an empire of drugs.

The couple had passed under the radar of authorities until that Chun is trying to come back to Canada with $ 600,000 in cash in his luggage.

At the end of a legal saga of more than a decade, the couple had been convicted and sentenced.

Fundraising

The couple, who owned assets valued at $ 9 million before his arrest, was recently released on parole, and every one of the money launderers was living in a halfway house.

And as they said they no longer have a penny, they turned to the cambodian community to pay millions of dollars in fines.

“The amounts ranging from $ 300 to $ 1,000 was raised to help pay for. To this day, they have got 4100 $, explained the judge. They are asking the court for a period of time to continue [the fundraising]. “

This request did not seem to move the Crown, which opposed any extension of the deadline. Because during the trial, it was proven that the couple had transferred sums of money in a bank in Cambodia that belonged in part to Chun and Lech.

“They have hidden their assets to avoid confiscation, said the judge, who recalled the arguments of the Crown. They have chosen not to pay. “