Convicted money launderers now whistleblowers
Eric St-Cyr
(CNS Business): Canadian investment advisor Eric St-Cyr, who was working from a Cayman Islands-based financial services firm, and Patrick Poulin, a Canadian attorney based in the Turks and Caicos Islands, were both sentenced Friday to serve 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release for conspiring to launder money. The two men are now said to be cooperating with the IRS and more investigations are expected from the information they have provided.
Senior US District Judge T.S. Ellis III imposed the sentences after considering the defendants’ substantial cooperation with ongoing government investigations. St-Cyr and Poulin, along with US citizen Joshua VanDyk, were indicted on 6 March and later arrested in Miami. St-Cyr (50) pleaded guilty on 27 June and Poulin (41) pleaded guilty on 11 July. Vandyk (34) pleaded guilty on 12 June and was sentenced on 5 September to serve 30 months in prison.
According to the plea agreements and statements of facts, Vandyk, St-Cyr and Poulin conspired to assist in the money laundering of $2 million, which they believed to be the proceeds of bank fraud but was in fact part of a sting operation by undercover law enforcement agents posing as US clients. Vandyk and St-Cyr invested the laundered funds on the clients’ behalf, telling them that the funds would not be reported to the US government.
“The sentences imposed by the court today show that those who use offshore accounts and entities for money laundering and tax evasion will be punished,†said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Ronald A. Cimino for the Justice Department’s Tax Division in a joint release from the Justice Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) . “This investigation, which lasted years, involved extensive undercover activity as well as cooperation from multiple foreign law enforcement agencies. The undercover IRS agents in this investigation went to Canada, the Turks and Caicos and the Cayman Islands to develop the evidence. These two defendants are cooperating with the IRS, and we anticipate that other investigations will develop from the information they have provided.â€
“These defendants played a shell game by creating offshore entities designed to help their US clients evade taxes and other legal requirements, and they used that same shell game to launder purported criminal proceeds,†said US Attorney Dana J. Boente for the Eastern District of Virginia. “We are committed to working with our law enforcement partners to penetrate and combat these schemes wherever they occur.â€
Patrick Poulin
“Today’s sentencings close the door on a business built on skirting the law,†said Chief of IRS-Criminal Investigation Richard Weber. “This investigation reinforces our commitment to investigate and prosecute criminals worldwide who conduct illegal financial transactions, launder money or attempt to conceal the true source of their income in order to evade paying taxes. This should send a clear message to those involved in this type of crime—we will find you.â€
According to court documents, Vandyk and St-Cyr lived in the Cayman Islands and worked for investment firm Clover Asset Management, which was based there. St-Cyr was the founder and head of the investment firm, whose clientele included numerous US citizens. Poulin, an attorney at Bishops, a law firm based in Turks and Caicos, worked and resided in Canada as well as Turks and Caicos. His clientele also included numerous US citizens. Vandyk, St-Cyr and Poulin solicited US citizens to use their services to hide assets from the US government, including the IRS. Vandyk and St-Cyr directed the undercover agents to create an offshore corporation with the assistance of Poulin and others because they and the investment firm did not want to appear to deal with US clients. Vandyk, St-Cyr and Poulin used the offshore entity to move money into the Cayman Islands and used Poulin as a nominee intermediary for the transactions.
According to court documents, Poulin established an offshore corporation called Zero Exposure Inc. for the undercover agents and served as a nominal board member in lieu of the clients. Poulin transferred approximately $200,000 that the defendants believed to be the proceeds of bank fraud from the offshore corporation to the Cayman Islands, where Vandyk and St-Cyr invested those funds outside of the United States in the name of the offshore corporation.
The investment firm represented that it would neither disclose the investments or any investment gains to the US government, nor would it provide monthly statements or other investment statements to the clients. Clients were able to monitor their investments online through the use of anonymous, numeric passcodes. Upon request from the US client, Vandyk and St-Cyr liquidated investments and transferred money, through Poulin, back to the United States. According to Vandyk and St-Cyr, the investment firm would charge clients higher fees to launder criminal proceeds than to assist them in tax evasion.
Related article:Â Jail sentence for Cayman-based money launderer
Category: Finance, Financial Crime
If you ever met Josh or Eric you knew they were destined to be behind bars… they would sell their moms to make money. This was the case of the blind leading the dumb, or is it the dumb leading the blind, anyways being cornholed by corn rows will look good on them.
It ain’t nothing like a good old snitch to put things in perspective for us Cayman especially when we are being constantly brainwashed that our foreign guest, are here for our benefit and then we find out otherwise or that’s a really nasty assumption on or part and that the “Black eye” Cayman is actually getting is now inflicting injury on us all. The problem is now we have so many black eyes we no longer can or able to see but that’s exactly how mother planned it.
Don’t blame this one on Mother (UK) she had nothing to do with this. All were from the great country of Canada. It seems as if they are going to really sock it to us and bring the financial industry down one notch lower by blowing their whistles. I guess that was all part of the planning to move as much business away from us even if it means doing 14 months in the slammer, the rewards will be worth it.
OOOOH Yeah more to follow i know somebodeeeee who’s little bum bum is on fire and maybe some of these blokes will join St Cyr in the pen too cause they are the ones here laudering all this money while Cayman taking the blame nah true!!
These are the people that we should have denied entry here in the first place. Another black eye to our financial industry as a result of crooked expats.