was COVID crisis perfect cover for wortman to slip $475,000 past FINTRAC ?

COVID crisis provided the perfect cover ( and perfect cover story)....

In mid to late March 2020, FINTRAC, the agency and system that tracks all movements of large sums of cash in Canada was in meltdown crisis.

Covid-19 had produced a panic attack among many ordinarily sensible Canadians, now seeking to take home large amounts of cash for what seemed like “The Last Days”.

That extra large inflow of large cash movements couldn’t have come at a worst time.

Because, again thanks to Covid-19, much of the staff at FINTRAC and among the reporting companies were either off work or working under restricted physical conditions.

FINTRAC reacted by triaging all but the most serious movements of cash and relaxing normal reporting requirements and deadlines.

This was all very publicly reported.

No doubt, some people, like Gabriel Wortman, the Hells Angels and the RCMP saw a rare chance to take advantage of the situation to slip something by. something that in other circumstances might have put up a very big, very red, flag.

After all, GW was hardly the only small businessman taking out a lot of cash to tide them through the Covid crisis.

Fuelling the urgency to take out large lumps of the green stuff among those less than honest were the persistent rumours (and in many cases, the actuality) that cash was being banned and only plastic could be used for payments.

If plastic-only became the law, perhaps everyone in this shady deal moved up their timetable, to get a large amount of untraceable cash out through this narrow window of opportunity, before the trap door shut...