Money Laundering, Proceeds of Crime and Extortion Lawyer in Toronto

Civitas Law is a team of legal professionals under the leadership of lawyer Nasibeh Mehrpouyan, defending people charged with money laundering, possession of proceeds and extortion in Toronto and across the GTA, in English, French, Farsi, Russian and Serbian. If someone has been arrested, start with our bail hearings page and call us right away. For the fraud and theft charges that often sit beside these ones, see our theft and fraud page.

Section 462.31 of the Criminal Code makes it an offence to use, transfer, send, transport, alter, dispose of or otherwise deal with property or its proceeds, intending to conceal or convert it, while knowing, believing or being reckless about whether it came from a designated offence. A designated offence is almost any indictable offence, including fraud and drug trafficking.

• The dealing. Moving money between accounts, buying a property or a car, sending e-transfers or converting cash to cryptocurrency can all count.
• The purpose. The Crown must show the dealing was meant to hide the money or change its form, not simply that money moved.
• Your state of mind. Since 2019 recklessness about the source is enough, which makes the position of someone who moved money as a favour harder, but far from hopeless.

Laundering is a hybrid offence with a maximum of ten years in jail by indictment. You do not need to have committed the original crime to be charged with laundering its proceeds.

Section 354 makes it an offence to possess property or proceeds knowing they were obtained by an indictable offence. Section 355 sets the penalty by value: possession of property over $5,000 is a straight indictable offence with a maximum of ten years, while possession under $5,000 is a hybrid offence with a lower maximum that Toronto Crowns usually prosecute by summary conviction.

Police lay this charge when they find cash, electronics, a vehicle or bank balances they believe came from a crime but cannot prove who committed it. A common situation is money someone else deposited into your account in a scam, where the account holder is treated as a money mule.

Knowledge is the heart of the case. The Crown can rely on wilful blindness, meaning you suspected the truth and chose not to ask, and on the doctrine of recent possession, which lets a court infer knowledge from unexplained possession of recently stolen property. A credible explanation given early, backed by records, can change the outcome.

Extortion under s. 346 is using threats, accusations, menaces or violence, without reasonable justification, to try to make someone hand over money or property or do anything else. The threat does not have to be carried out and the other person does not have to give in; the attempt is enough.

Extortion is always indictable, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Where a restricted or prohibited firearm is used, or the offence is tied to a criminal organization, a mandatory minimum sentence can still apply; the former minimum for extortion with an ordinary firearm was repealed in 2022.

Sextortion. A growing share of Toronto extortion files involve threats to share intimate images unless money is paid or more images are sent. Companion charges often include publication of an intimate image without consent (s. 162.1), criminal harassment and, where the other person is under 18, child pornography and luring. The evidence is almost entirely digital, so how police obtained phones and chat logs, and whether the person behind the account can be proven, are the central questions.

Most laundering and proceeds files in Toronto start somewhere else. A fraud complaint, a drug trafficking project or a tax investigation leads police to follow the money, and anyone whose account, business or property touched it can become a suspect. Banks must report suspicious and large cash transactions to FINTRAC, Canada's financial intelligence agency, which passes intelligence to police. When police lay fraud charges, they often add laundering or possession of proceeds for everyone who received or moved the money, including spouses and business partners.

Criminal defence is not civil fraud recovery. This page is about defending a criminal charge brought by the Crown. A civil fraud recovery claim is a lawsuit by the person who says they lost money, where the goal is a judgment, a freezing order or the return of funds. The two can run at the same time, and what you say in one can be used in the other, so get advice before giving any statement, sworn or not.

These cases are as much about property as about liberty. A judge can make a restraint order freezing property believed to be proceeds of crime before trial, usually without notice to you. A management order can put a seized business or vehicle under a court-appointed manager while the case continues. On conviction, the court can order forfeiture of the proceeds to the Crown, and where the property cannot be found it can impose a fine in its place, with jail if the fine is not paid. Separately, Ontario's Civil Remedies Act lets the province sue to forfeit property as proceeds or an instrument of unlawful activity on the civil standard of proof, even if the criminal case ends in a withdrawal or an acquittal.

Restraint orders can be challenged and varied, including to release funds for reasonable living and legal expenses. Acting early matters because the deadlines in forfeiture proceedings are short.

We start with disclosure: the production orders, bank records and digital evidence the Crown relies on. The usual lines of defence are:

• No knowledge. You did not know, believe or have reason to suspect that the money or goods came from crime.
• Legitimate source. The money came from wages, a sale, a loan or a gift that can be documented, and the Crown cannot tie it to a designated offence.
• No intent to conceal. Funds moved for an ordinary reason, not to hide them.
• Charter challenges. Production orders, warrants and phone searches must meet legal requirements, and evidence obtained in breach of the Charter can be excluded.
• Identity in extortion cases. Proving who was behind an account or phone is often the weakest link.

Bail and conditions. People charged with financial offences are usually released, but conditions can include no access to certain accounts, no cryptocurrency, surrender of a passport and limits on devices. We work to keep conditions workable so you can keep working.

Immigration. Laundering, possession of proceeds over $5,000 and extortion all carry maximum sentences of ten years or more, so a conviction makes a permanent resident or foreign national inadmissible for serious criminality whatever sentence is imposed. Speak to our immigration law team before any plea.

Book a consultation online or call (647) 271-1646 (the phone is answered 24/7). 30-minute consultation, $150 plus HST, paid when you book. Legal fees after that depend on the work involved, and we explain them in writing before you retain us.