British Columbia Man Convicted of Murdering Notorious Casino Money Launderer

Posted on: September 5, 2024, 03:25h. 

Last updated on: September 5, 2024, 03:25h.

Philip Conneller @casinoorgphilc Read More
Expertise: Gaming Business, Regulation, Tribal Gaming.

A Richmond, British Columbia man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the 2020 shooting of Jian Jun Zhu, an alleged large-scale money launderer.

Jian Jun Zhu, Richard Charles Reed, murder, Paul King Jin, Silver International
Jian Jun Zhu, above, was an industrial-scale money launderer who was brazenly gunned down at the Manzo Japanese restaurant in Richmond in September 2000. Richard Charles Reed has been convicted of the murder, but questions remain about who ordered the hit and why. (Image: South China Morning Post)

Richard Charles Reed was additionally found not guilty of the attempted murder of Paul “King” Jin, an associate of Zhu. Jin was dining with the victim at the Manzo Japanese restaurant in Richmond when Reed opened fire with a 45-calibre Norinco semi-automatic pistol. Jin was injured in the attack but survived.

British Columbia authorities believe Jian was the center of an operation that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money through the province’s casinos.

Reed was identified as a man seen wearing a striped black and white hoodie circling the restaurant before entering four minutes prior to the shooting. Prosecutors said he had been waiting for the sun to set so he could make his escape under the cover of darkness.

Smoking Gun

When police searched Reed’s apartment, they found the murder weapon under the bed, as well as a loaded magazine with Reed’s fingerprint on it.

Reed had frequent phone contact with three men who were either in the restaurant or in the vicinity at the time of the shooting. Justice Jeanne Watchuk said the men likely aided Reed in committing the killing.

One of these men, Jin Cai, was also having dinner at Manzo and was the only one to leave early, just minutes before the killing. Cai was murdered in his home in Vancouver in June 2021. Another, Jack Qin, organized the meal. He was shot in the face in April 2021 but survived and testified at the trial.

In the witness stand, Qin denied ordering the hit, and he denied directing Zhu to sit in a position close to the window where he would be an easy target.

The third man, Gordon Ma, was seen on surveillance video with Reed before the shooting and had frequent phone contact with Jin Cai, before and after the act. His whereabouts are unknown.

Reed’s trial was a judge-only affair. In Canada, when there is deemed to be substantial risk of jury intimidation or tampering, juries can be dispensed with altogether.

Silver International

In 2017, Zhu was the subject of a case that was billed as Canada’s all-time biggest money laundering prosecution. He was accused of washing hundreds of millions of dollars of criminal proceeds through Vancouver-area casinos via his currency exchange company, Silver International.

Prosecutors in the case contended that Silver was a front for an underground bank with links to drug cartels.

The case collapsed when prosecutors inadvertently divulged the name of an important government witness during a standard evidence disclosure. The judge stayed the case after deciding that its continuation would place the witness at “high risk of death.”

Reed will be sentenced