sailingaway
04-07-2013, 12:49 AM
Man has undeclared $10,000 seized at border after exchange rate pushes him over limit to take from country
Robert Docherty of Maple Ridge, B.C., knew any amount over $10,000 must be declared at the border when taking it out of Canada, and he purposely counted and calculated the exchange rate so the $9,880 U.S. and $335 Canadian he was packing were within that limit.
By the time he was boarding his flight to Costa Rica at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport two days later, however, the value of the U.S. dollar had risen slightly, pushing his tally over the $10,000 mark.
After a currency detector dog uncovered the cash and Canada Border Services Agents checked the Bank of Canada exchange rate that day in 2010, all of it was seized as suspected proceeds of crime.
Mr. Docherty has now lost his bid to get any of the money back.
He represented himself in two levels of court without success. His complaint to the Federal Court of Canada prompted the judge to declare: “This is a case of a traveller sailing too close to the legal winds. But for greed, this applicant would not be in court.”
Mr. Docherty then turned to the Federal Court of Appeal.
He said the money was from an inheritance that he and his daughter used in their wild mushroom business, which handled transactions in cash, and he was using it to buy property abroad. He argued he wasn’t hiding the money, only purposely trying to stay below the reporting limit.
Further, he said, the government was biased toward him because he has a criminal conviction from 1993.
The government argued there are reasonable grounds to believe the money was criminal profit.
“Smuggling cash across international borders is a strong indicator that the funds are proceeds of crime,” the government argued; “$10,000 was a very high threshold; most people did not have, let alone carry, this amount.”
‘$10,000 was a very high threshold; most people did not have, let alone carry, this amount’
Not helping his case was the fact that Mr. Docherty had little in the way of business records to prove the origins of the cash.
“Individuals are free to arrange their affairs so as to leave the smallest possible financial footprint,” wrote Justice J.D. Denis Pelletier, on behalf of the panel of appellate judges, last week. “The disadvantage of doing so is that when a question arises as to the source of large amounts of cash found in their possession, they have very few means of establishing the legitimacy of those funds.
“In the context of the issues sought to be addressed by the act — money laundering and the financing of terrorism — the government is entitled to ask for a reasonable explanation of the source of currency in excess of the prescribed limit found on persons leaving Canada.
“In this case, Mr. Docherty’s explanations were unverifiable and, as such, amounted to no explanation at all,” the court ruled in dismissing his appeal.
Mr. Docherty could not be reached for comment.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/canada/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/02/man-has-undeclared-10000-seized-at-border-after-exchange-rate-pushes-him-over-limit-to-take-from-country
Robert Docherty of Maple Ridge, B.C., knew any amount over $10,000 must be declared at the border when taking it out of Canada, and he purposely counted and calculated the exchange rate so the $9,880 U.S. and $335 Canadian he was packing were within that limit.
By the time he was boarding his flight to Costa Rica at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport two days later, however, the value of the U.S. dollar had risen slightly, pushing his tally over the $10,000 mark.
After a currency detector dog uncovered the cash and Canada Border Services Agents checked the Bank of Canada exchange rate that day in 2010, all of it was seized as suspected proceeds of crime.
Mr. Docherty has now lost his bid to get any of the money back.
He represented himself in two levels of court without success. His complaint to the Federal Court of Canada prompted the judge to declare: “This is a case of a traveller sailing too close to the legal winds. But for greed, this applicant would not be in court.”
Mr. Docherty then turned to the Federal Court of Appeal.
He said the money was from an inheritance that he and his daughter used in their wild mushroom business, which handled transactions in cash, and he was using it to buy property abroad. He argued he wasn’t hiding the money, only purposely trying to stay below the reporting limit.
Further, he said, the government was biased toward him because he has a criminal conviction from 1993.
The government argued there are reasonable grounds to believe the money was criminal profit.
“Smuggling cash across international borders is a strong indicator that the funds are proceeds of crime,” the government argued; “$10,000 was a very high threshold; most people did not have, let alone carry, this amount.”
‘$10,000 was a very high threshold; most people did not have, let alone carry, this amount’
Not helping his case was the fact that Mr. Docherty had little in the way of business records to prove the origins of the cash.
“Individuals are free to arrange their affairs so as to leave the smallest possible financial footprint,” wrote Justice J.D. Denis Pelletier, on behalf of the panel of appellate judges, last week. “The disadvantage of doing so is that when a question arises as to the source of large amounts of cash found in their possession, they have very few means of establishing the legitimacy of those funds.
“In the context of the issues sought to be addressed by the act — money laundering and the financing of terrorism — the government is entitled to ask for a reasonable explanation of the source of currency in excess of the prescribed limit found on persons leaving Canada.
“In this case, Mr. Docherty’s explanations were unverifiable and, as such, amounted to no explanation at all,” the court ruled in dismissing his appeal.
Mr. Docherty could not be reached for comment.
http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/canada/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/2013/04/02/man-has-undeclared-10000-seized-at-border-after-exchange-rate-pushes-him-over-limit-to-take-from-country