Crown seeks maximum sentence for couple who laundered money for drug kingpin

The Crown has asked that a couple who laundered millions in drug money for a prolific trafficker before he was murdered receive the maximum sentence for their crimes.

Prosecutor Marie Michèle Meloche said sentences of between eight and 10 years were justified for Sy Veng Chun, 67, and his wife Leng Ky Lech, 51, during sentencing arguments at the Montreal courthouse Friday morning before Quebec Court Judge Patrick Healy. The couple ran at least two companies out of a money exchange counter in Montreal’s Chinatown and were found guilty last month of several charges related to how they laundered what is estimated to have been more than $125 million for Daniel Muir, a very active drug dealer who was murdered in downtown Montreal in 2004.

They were convicted of laundering the proceeds of drug crimes, possession of the proceeds of crime, tax evasion and aiding tax evasion. The Crown had evidence that Muir and the couple had worked together from as far back as 1999 up until Muir’s death.

Meloche said the complexity, length and the amount of money involved in the case justify the maximum 10-year sentence allowed for a money laundering conviction. She also asked that the couple be sentenced to an additional six years, to be served consecutively, if they fail to pay a $1.4 million fine they are expected to be hit with as part of their sentence.

Healy, who reached his verdict in September following a very lengthy trial, did not seem surprised by the prosecutor’s request. At one point the judge pointed out that the maximum sentence allowed for a conviction involving simple fraud is actually 14 years compared to 10 for money laundering, even if the case involves cleaning the dirty money of someone who traffics in an addictive drug like cocaine. Meloche confirmed the difference in maximum sentences and said the Crown has pressured legislatures to increase the maximum sentences for money launderers without success.

Meloche also argued there should be no distinction made between the roles the couple played in laundering Muir’s millions when it comes to the sentence they serve. The most significant difference in how they operated, she said, is that Lech handled matters in Montreal and Chun travelled to Cambodia often to launder drug money there.

The defence is expected to make its arguments on sentences next week.