The RCMP admitted it has no clear information on the status of the Liberals’ long-promised Canadian Financial Crimes Agency, telling MPs the project remains vague more than three years after it was first announced.Blacklock's Reporter says Chief Superintendent Michael Saghbini, who heads the Mounties’ financial crimes investigations, told the Commons finance committee he could not say what progress had been made. “We’re not sure exactly,” said Saghbini. “Obviously it is in its infancy stages and we’re not sure exactly how the Agency is going to look. We do know we will be part of it.”Saghbini said the RCMP has experience tackling fraud and money laundering and will support the new agency “however it is going to look,” but offered no concrete recommendations when pressed by Liberal MP Jake Sawatzky.The Liberals first pledged the agency during their 2021 election campaign, promising a $200 million national unit dedicated to complex financial crimes such as fraud, insider trading, money laundering and organized crime. .It was billed as a merger of the Canada Revenue Agency’s forensic auditors, the intelligence work of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre and the RCMP’s financial crimes teams.Despite repeated promises, the finance department has refused to release any details under Access To Information. Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne re-announced the plan on October 20, saying consultations were underway and vowing Canada would recruit top-tier specialists similar to those in the U.K. and the FBI.A finance department Backgrounder stated only that legislation would be introduced by next June 21, with no date for when the agency would actually start operating. It warned that financial crimes continue to threaten the “safety, security and well-being of Canadians” and that organized criminals are using increasingly sophisticated tools to hide illicit profits.
