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Police seized the cash, which later examined optimistic for cocaine contamination, however the automobile’s driver says he was ‘he was within the common course of his employment’
Printed Nov 13, 2024 • Final up to date 16 hours in the past • 3 minute learn
Driver Mohamad Samed Roumiah says he was transporting the money for his employer, Inexperienced Zone Finance, primarily based in Ontario. Photograph by Postmedia Information
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The B.C. authorities needs to maintain greater than $1 million discovered after an Edmonton man crashed his rental automobile close to Clearwater in Might.
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However driver Mohamad Samed Roumiah is combating again, saying that he was transporting the big amount of money as a part of his duties for an Ontario firm known as Inexperienced Zone Finance.
Roumiah was driving on Freeway 5 near Clearwater on Might 26, when his rental automobile collided with one other car. He was injured and brought to hospital.
“The RCMP located a broken red suitcase near the collision site,” the B.C. director of civil forfeiture mentioned in his lawsuit. “The suitcase contained the money. The money was not packaged in accordance with standard banking practices.”
The money, which totalled $1,012,790 was in buying baggage and of various denominations bundled with rubber bands and “with alternate-facing bills.”
Police seized the cash, which later examined optimistic for cocaine contamination.
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The director says within the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 20, that the money must be forfeited as a result of it comes from illegal exercise, together with possession for the aim of trafficking and trafficking, possession of the proceeds of crime, laundering the proceeds of crime and failure to declare taxable revenue.
Roumiah filed his first assertion of defence on Sept. 12, claiming that “he was in the regular course of his employment” when the accident occurred. The court docket doc didn’t state what his job was or identify his employer.
“The defendant has no knowledge of the packaging of the money or any alleged connection to unlawful activities,” mentioned the Sept. 12 response filed by Edmonton lawyer Tariq Salloum.
“The defendant asserts that he was engaged in lawful activities and was acting within the scope of his regular employment at the time of the incident.”
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Salloum filed an amended response on behalf of Roumiah final week, including in a paragraph concerning the employer.
“The defendant asserts that the money was in his lawful possession as part of his role in transporting funds for Green Zone Finance Inc., an Ontario-based corporation, at the time of the motor vehicle accident. The defendant was acting within the scope of his duties with no evidence linking the money to unlawful activity.”
Each the preliminary and amended responses say the federal government has not supplied “sufficient evidence” of any hyperlink to criminality. The Ion Mobility Spectrometry testing that discovered cocaine residue doesn’t show illegal exercise, the response mentioned.
“Such contamination is widely acknowledged to occur in general circulation of currency, and cannot conclusively link the money to drug trafficking or related defences.”
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Postmedia known as Inexperienced Zone, which is in Mississauga. An individual answering the telephone confirmed Roumiah is an worker.
Requested concerning the $1 million discovered, the person mentioned it got here from “a client in Alberta who deposited money at our representatives in Alberta and this money accumulated.”
He mentioned the cash was then given to Roumiah in the middle of his duties to move to a different location in B.C.
Requested for extra particulars about the place the cash was headed and whether or not this was the conventional course of for shifting funds, the Inexperienced Zone particular person referred inquiries to Salloum, the Edmonton lawyer.
However Salloum didn’t reply to particular questions emailed to him.
“We have no comment to make with respect to this matter,” he mentioned.
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