She alleged that the couple has strong ties to their native Cambodia and described them as a flight risk because their children are now adults.

Two people convicted of laundering money of a drug dealer

The Montreal Gazette | September 15, 2014

Sy Veng Chun and Leng Ky Leck, a couple accused of money laundering, along with their legal team make their way to the courtroom in Montreal, Monday, Sept, 15, 2014.

Photograph by: Vincenzo D'Alto , The Gazette

MONTREAL — A couple who ran a currency exchange counter in Chinatown are facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence after being convicted of laundering the dirty money of a millionaire drug dealer in a case dating back a decade.

Sy Veng Chun, 67, and Leng Ky Lech, 51, learned their fate Monday afternoon at the same Montreal courthouse where the warrants for their arrests were issued on Nov. 15, 2004. Quebec Court Judge Patrick Healy found them and two companies they own — Phen Heng Or Gold Inc. and A & A Services Monetaires — guilty on all 13 of the charges filed in their case.

They were convicted of laundering the proceeds of drug crimes, possession of the proceeds of crime, tax evasion and aiding tax evasion.

“I would not go so far as to say that 99 per cent of the material in this case was irrelevant in fact and in law. At its core this case is not complicated. It is that the accused received proceeds of drug crimes and not only possessed but laundered them in successive transactions as specified in the (charges),” Healy wrote in his 38-page decision.

“The scope and complexity of the offences committed are amply proved by the evidence. If there is a comment that might be made about the evidence it is that (the) prosecution proved its case many times over.”

The trial began in 2010 and continued intermittently over more than 80 days. Healy was presented with more than 450 exhibits and final arguments were made at the end of 2012.

The case centred around the dirty drug money of Daniel Muir, a well-known drug trafficker who was killed in downtown Montreal in 2004.

“There is direct evidence of Mr. Muir’s involvement in (the drug trade), but (also) that the scale of these activities could be measured in the tens of millions of dollars,” Healy wrote in a section of his decision where he assessed Muir’s relationship with Chun and Lech.

Healy was presented with evidence that Muir met with the couple in 2000 and they came to an agreement where he would supply them with millions in Canadian cash. In exchange they would launder his money and pay Muir $80,000 a month in interest. A woman described as Muir’s clairvoyant and confidant attended the meeting and testified about the details during the trial.

One of Muir’s drug trafficking partners also testified during the trial and said that, between 1999 and 2002, he delivered a total of more than $10 million in cash to the couple’s offices in sports bags that smelled strongly of marijuana. He said that Lech asked him to park his car far from the office and that he exit by a rear door because she feared he was under police surveillance.

Lech was specifically convicted of being in possession of two luxury homes, in Mont-St-Hilaire and in Montreal’s St-Laurent borough, that were actually Muir’s residence and a property that was being constructed for him.

After Healy made his decision, prosecutor Fabienne Simon asked that the couple be taken into custody before sentence arguments can be made. She alleged that the couple has strong ties to their native Cambodia and described them as a flight risk because their children are now adults. The request stunned the defence lawyers who have represented Chun and Lech for years.

“Where is the humanity aspect here,” asked defence lawyer Raphael Schachter at one point. “They have been here every step of the way. They have been here in court whenever required. Where is the humanity in all this?”

Healy agreed to hear arguments, likely next week, on whether the couple should be detained before they are sentenced. In the interim, he imposed strict new conditions on the couple, including a requirement they remain in their condo in St-Laurent all day except for a three-hour period on Thursday to run errands, and to meet with their lawyers on Friday.

Sentence arguments are scheduled to begin on Oct. 24.

pcherry@montrealgazette.com