In August 2012, a 19-year-old student from Guangdong arrived from the Dominican Republic to Montreal with $23,800 in euros and U.S.
dollars stuffed into his backpack. Four months later, Zhang Guanqun purchased an 8,500-square-foot mansion in Coquitlam, B.C., for $2.1 million.
It was only one of Zhang’s many multimillion-dollar transactions while attending Coquitlam College. From about 2012 to 2015, Zhang would funnel at least $33.75 million in electronic funds and cash through Canadian and Hong Kong bank accounts.
As it turned out, however, the Canada Border Services Agency and Fintrac, Canada’s anti-money laundering watchdog, had long been monitoring Zhang’s movements.