B.C. Attorney General David Eby reacted strongly Wednesday to news that criminal charges in B.C.’s largest money-laundering case had been stayed, calling the inability to prosecute these cases a crisis.

“I was incredibly disappointed — as I imagine are many British Columbians,” Eby said at a news conference in Vancouver.

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He said he learned that criminal charges in the RCMP’s E-Pirate money laundering investigation had been stayed after reading about it in a newspaper.

Eby said there was an “urgent” need to find out why this happened and how to fix it, which would need the co-operation of all parties, including the federal government. “It is a disturbing signal that a prosecution of this magnitude collapses shortly before going to trial,” said Eby, who believed it was the largest money-laundering case in B.C. history.

The Vancouver Sun reported Wednesday that last week in Richmond provincial court, charges were stayed by the Crown on money laundering the proceeds of crime, possession of property obtained by crime and three counts of failing to ascertain the identity of a client against Silver International Investments Ltd., Caixuan Qin (born 1984) and Jain Jun Zhu (born 1975).

These were the only criminal charges related to the RCMP’s E-Pirate investigation, where the Mounties allege they uncovered more than $500 million from a Richmond money-laundering service they said handled up to $1.5 million a day, and was allegedly linked to drug money.

Just before the stay of charges, a five-week trial had been scheduled for Qin, Zhu and Silver International stretching from January to April in 2019.

“I want to be clear that I am not blaming the police, not blaming the federal prosecutors, I am not blaming the federal government,” said Eby. “But I think we need to know what went wrong — because something obviously went terribly wrong.”

Eby said he had no idea why the charges had been stayed. He said he’s asked for a briefing from the federal government, federal prosecution service and RCMP. But Eby said he did not know whether he would get any detailed information, and if he did, what he could share with the public.

Eby said he would also seek to find answers and solutions with Bill Blair, the federal Minister of Border Security and Organized Crime.

He said he has asked his staff to determine if there were any provincial laws or regulations that had been violated that relate to the money-laundering case where the province could become involved. Federal prosecutors and police would not say Tuesday, in response to questions from The Sun, explicitly why the charges were stayed.

On Wednesday, RCMP Sgt. Marie Damian said the RCMP was conducting a review in an attempt to identify what police “activities” could have contributed to the charges being stayed.

“The RCMP is conducting a full-scale review to understand its activities which contributed to this stay, and will incorporate relevant lessons learned into its investigative practices and processes where necessary,” Damian said in an written statement. “More importantly, how to mitigate against the possibility this set of circumstances occurs again in the future.”