Crimes of Entitlement

Crimes of Entitlement

Published by Ken Merkley at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 Ken Merkley

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author welcomes any information enabling him to rectify any references or credit in subsequent editions. The book is also available in print editions.

Acknowledgments

Claire Ward, my patient and conscientious editor receives my everlasting gratitude for studiously working through my draft manuscript and ensuring that at the end of the day what I had written became a coherent novel with a tolerably lucid and realistic storyline. Her valuable suggestions and careful attention to detail resulted in this being a much better book than it would have been otherwise.

Also, I especially wish to thank my wife Bernadette, as I greatly treasured her support and encouragement during the drafting of this and my earlier books. She patiently put up with me as I worked my way through the research, writing and formatting of the text material, read my drafts and pointed out my initial flubbed typing errors and 'word whiskers'.

I'm entitled to my entitlements

Infamous term coined by Royal Canadian Mint CEO (and former Liberal cabinet minister) Mr. David Dingwall at a Parliamentary committee hearing regarding his expenses. Mr. Dingwall resigned on October 19, 2005 after he had racked up nearly $750,000 in expenses as head of the crown corporation in one year.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Nineteen

Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-Two

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Chapter Thirty

Also by Ken Merkley

Chapter One

Rich sat uncomfortably in front of the Deputy Minister's desk, gazing vacantly out the large picture window at the bare lawns and flower gardens below. Lush and colourful in the late spring, now in early April they lay brown and dormant, with patches of dirty snow still covering large sections of the semi-frozen ground. In the distance the wide muddy water of the Assiniboia River was in view, winding lazily through the breadth of the city and its environs.

But Rich wasn't taking any of it in. His mind was still on the stern reprimand John Turnbull, his boss, if you could call him that, had delivered, after ordering Rich to his office at eight-thirty in the morning. He was making it very explicit that Rich's days with the Liquor, Gaming and Cannabis Authority were numbered. As head of the LGCA, Richard Gambol and his team operated independently of government and the Ministry of Justice was only responsible for administrative oversight of the Authority. However, Turnbull had made it clear administration took in employee placements including hiring, firing and transferring of senior staff members.

What the hell, Rich thought, the new girl, Emily Matthews, had made it pretty obvious she was interested in him and when he invited her to stay and chat at the end of Friday's work day the week before, she had readily agreed. And even when he suggested he pour them a drink from his desk drawer bottle of Crown Royal and get comfortable on his non-government issue sofa, Emily hadn't hesitated. It was only after three or four drinks and after he had kissed, fondled and half undressed her that she feebly protested. Of course, he was pretty steamed up by then and assumed she was only letting him know that she wasn't a slut and didn't engage in sexual activity with just anyone. But after all, he wasn't just anyone and he was sure she didn't really mean it. So he continued and while she hadn't been a great lay and failed to show any indication of enthusiasm, Emily hadn't verbalized any further objections. Okay, so she had dressed hurriedly after and left right away, but he could only conclude she was satisfied and needed to get on with her weekend.

Turnbull had given his predictable defence her word against mine short shrift and then reminded Rich that his reputation for after work 'interviews' was well known across Government. Emily wasn't the first to complain, although the others had only talked about their experiences by warning other female employees of the Authority and the Ministry about his modus operendi.

The thing was, the LGCA was right downtown on Garry Street, in the heart of the action, so to speak, while the Government offices were generally clustered along the river close to the legislature. Thus Rich and his small staff were quite independent and it was easy, as the lord of the manor, to pursue his after office-work pursuits in his cozy and well-stocked office.

Rich straightened up as the D/M waddled back in and sat down gingerly across the desk from him. John Turnbull, lazy but competent, had methodically worked his way through the ranks of the Manitoba Government, always ready to follow the wishes of his superiors. He always agreed to implement the recommendations of the senior administrative staff of his current Ministry, including financial services and human resources, without ever initiating anything of his own. Now aging, fat and out of shape, he was content to sit and relay to his subordinates the decisions made for him by others.

I talked to the Minister, Jack Coulter, he droned, brushing scone crumbs off his crumpled jacket, and he agrees with Human Resources that you need to go. You're a huge embarrassment to the Authority and for someone who is tasked with regulatory responsibilities you are not only required to be squeaky clean, you need to appear to be squeaky clean.

You mean squeaky clean like you, you fat slob, Rich thought, pretending to listen to the ineffective lecture from the subservient Deputy.

The Minister feels you've failed dismally on two counts, not only in respect to your actions and attitudes toward female employees, but also in your purchasing and expense claims. One striking example reported by financial services, was showing your contempt for government regulations by bringing in a non-authorized couch that you bought outside of the purchasing system and had the audacity to pay for with a government credit card. Are you kidding me? Then we find out, you only installed it in your office to assist you in your Friday after-work seduction interviews that you brow-beat new female employees into attending.

None of these accusations have anything to do with my responsibilities, John, Rich protested, deciding he should at least pretend to defend himself. I have always conducted my regulatory duties in an exemplary fashion, ensuring that gaming enterprise businesses and charity societies across the Province conduct their operations in an open, honest and ethical manner.

Not that that's any big deal, given the level of gaming activity in Manitoba, compared for instance, to B.C. or Ontario, Turnbull retorted. However, I will concede that on your watch nothing significantly illegal has happened, or at least has caught the attention of the media. But your personal life and government spending actions are something else and we've had it with you. I'm not in a position to keep you; the decision has now been authorized by the Minister. It's simply a matter at this stage as to what happens next.

And what's that?

We could simply fire you, or even hand you over to the police. Fortunately for you, Ms. Matthews reported you internally and didn't take her accusations directly to the RCMP, so it allows us to decide on your dismissal from the Authority. The Minister and I agree that we are not prepared to offer you further employment in the public sector in the province, but to give you a choice between you seeking a job in the private sector, or accepting a job with another province where your reputation may not have been discovered.

I take it in respect to that second choice you have something specific in mind?

No one ever took you for being a dummy, Rich. You may be conceited, unethical, misogynistic, and arrogant, but not stupid. And yes, we do have an alternative in mind, now that you ask. I was made aware of the complaint against you, earlier this week and have had a chance to discuss the dilemma with Human Resources. It seems BC has a similar situation in their gaming regulatory authority and Minister Coulter, who is a close friend of Mark Delong, the BC Minister of Business Development, was asked if we had a position for one of their employees here in Manitoba.

They're buddies, even though they have a Progressive government while ours is Unity? Rich questioned.

Yeah, many of the Progressive elected officials in BC are ex-Unity party members who joined the Progressives to successfully stop the New Labour Party from forming the government. It seems that Mark and our Jack were both members of the University of B.C.'s Unity student political wing and still keep in touch.

Sounds cozy, but what did you mean by a similar situation in B.C.?

Fred Case, who was the Assistant Deputy Minister in the Ministry's Recreational Enterprises Regulatory Branch, was accused of accepting a bribe from a charity group seeking approval for a bingo and lottery licence. On the surface it wasn't a huge deal, but the local rag in Victoria got word of it and made an issue of it. Fred even denied the accusation and threatened to sue the newspaper, but his Minister decided the optics weren't great. It seems the province has gone through a long period of shady dealings involving gaming facilities, especially related to casino money laundering. So without doing anything meaningful to improve the situation, the Minster decided a change at the top in the Branch would appease the media, not to mention the opposition New Labour Party, who have been yapping about gambling corruption and ties to organized crime in the province.

Let me guess, the solution is to do a swap and he gets my job and I get his.

As I said earlier, Rich, not much grass grows under your feet. Yes, that's the deal.

So I get a transfer to balmy Victoria, as head of the B.C. RER Branch, with added responsibilities and, presumably a larger staff and increased salary. Please don't throw me in that briar patch, Mr. Wolf.

I know, I know. But politically it gets both Ministers off the hook, as it makes it appear that we've taking meaningful action. You could even refer to it as people laundering, he added facetiously. Plus, as I said earlier, you have a good record in overseeing gaming operations here in Manitoba, so providing you clean up your personal life and change your spending habits, you might even do a good job out on the coast and come up with some meaningful ways of getting to the bottom of the money laundering problem.

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Rich responded dryly. Do I get to think about this?

Sure, you can tell me within the next thirty seconds if you're taking the offer, or getting fired. That's the choices the Minister has ordered me to give you.

In that case I won't keep you in suspense. I'll humbly accept the offer.

Somehow I knew you would.

For the rest of the day, Rich sat in his office and did little but think about the decision. He had fond memories about growing up in Brandon, then attending and graduating with an Honours degree in Commerce at the University in Winnipeg, not to mention his relatively easy success in landing a job as a policy analyst in the Ministry of Justice. He had climbed through the ranks quickly and effortlessly and now at the age of 37 he was already at the Assistant Deputy Minister level and, if not for his proclivity to go after the pleasures and comforts he felt he deserved, he would very likely have soon reached the top ranks of public service in his home province.

So now he had to think about whether he could continue his upward climb in another province. But that wasn't the issue - he felt sure he could. But what he had to ponder was whether or not he needed to rein in his appetite for what he considered to be his entitlements. Others should see that he deserved these perks, given his self-assessment of high intelligence, good looks and a superior background as the son of a provincial judge and a medical doctor. If they couldn't see that he deserved these privileges then they were simply envious and generally should be ignored or put in their place. But, politics being politics, he finally decided he would at least attempt to play the game when he settled into his new job in B.C.

His next thought was how to break the news to his wife, Juliana. Tall and beautiful, with long red hair and aqua-green eyes, she was often unpredictable, independent and headstrong and she could never be counted on to easily accept his preferences or decisions. From the outset, in spite of her looks, it had been hard for him to understand how he had been attracted to her. He rationalized that he had always been used to getting what he wanted and he had decided he wanted her, simply because her stubborn resistance to his advances presented an obstacle he needed to overcome.

Juliana had been raised in an upper middle-class family in Brandon and was informed early in life by her parents that she was to graduate from university in a degree program that would allow her to remain self-reliant in an occupation that would be high in demand. Her chauvinistic father, however, insisted it should be in an occupation that he considered one for women. He also believed that females, to their detriment, were too emotional and he would be quick to belittle her as a child if she laughed or smiled excessively, or expressed sadness. As a result by her late teens she was seen by her friends as smart, but haughty and aloof.

When Rich first started showing an interest in her at the University of Manitoba, Juliana didn't make it easy for him. He would catch her eye between lectures and while she would ignore him when he attempted to chat her up with one of his smooth approach lines, he had the impression she was taking it in, although she never as much as smiled or changed expression. He eventually got her to go out with him after stumbling across her one late afternoon after classes unsuccessfully attempting to get her Miata sports car to start. She had reluctantly allowed him to arrange a tow-truck to bring her car to her garage and finally accepted his ride home.

Their first date was only a movie, but although it was unnatural for him, he remained on his best behavior and it seemed to break the ice. They dated for a while and he remained frustrated and yet intrigued that she refused to let him get her into the sack. Nevertheless, they kept going out and after he started working for the Ministry they got married. She'd accepted his proposal almost matter-of-factly, causing him to think he may have made a mistake, but her zealous enthusiasm in their bedchamber soon convinced him that he hadn't.

During the drive home at the end of the day he rehearsed his opening lines for Juliana. When he arrived he pulled into the garage of their oversized house in the posh St. Charles section of the city, closed the garage door with the remote control and made his way through to the kitchen where he predictably found Juliana working on another new and untried dinner dish, something she never seemed to tire of doing.

That smells delicious, he remarked, already straying from the script he had prepared.

I know, she replied, hovering over the stove. It's something I ran across at work today and thought I would try out. How come you're home already? No overtime tonight? she added, making double hash marks in the air around overtime with her fingers.

I'd much rather be here with you, my gorgeous princess, he answered glibly and quickly added besides I have some news. Given her unpredictability, he had decided not to refer to it as good news.

What would that be, my philandering spouse? she said caustically. One of your lady friends is pregnant?

Oh give me a break, Julie. No, this is about a promotion for your rising star of a husband and a great transfer.

Tell me first about the transfer part? she asked with little interest or fervour.

It's to Victoria! he said, trying to express enthusiasm in a way that suggested she should feel it as well. No more snow, no more cold, nothing but flowers and green grass all year long.

How about stuck on an island with lots of fog, rain and stuck-up people and no job for me at the supermarket?

Once she had decided that children were not an option, never quite trusting her husband to stay with her, Juliana had remained on birth control pills. Bored with domestic work, other than cooking, she had decided to seek full-time employment and made use of her degree in consumer sciences to land a job as a marketing and nutritional wellness expert at Winnipeg's largest supermarket. She was responsible for the meat and delicatessen sections and took a huge interest in preparing and displaying meat products for consumers in as appealing a manner as possible, while ensuring a minimum of waste and a large variation in meats cuts.

She also rode the store butchers relentlessly, insisting they train her to prepare the meat-cuts effectively and efficiently. After perfecting her skills she began to demand they prepare the various cuts to the near-impossible standards she had learned were practised at the most specialized high-end delicatessen shops in North America's largest cities. Her efforts led to a huge demand for the store's meat products and it didn't hurt that the male customers would flock to the store, hoping to see the attractive red-head bustling around the meat-cutters and display counters.

No need to worry about finding a job, my pet. With your expertise you won't have any problem finding a new position in Victoria and probably even a better one than the one here.

The fact you're trying so hard to sell me on it, tells me there must be a catch of some kind.

No catch, Juliana. The Deputy Minister assured me that because I've done such a great job here in Winnipeg, with my abilities I could help fix a big problem they're having in B.C. with money laundering in their casinos.

Of course, you agreed with his assessment of your brilliance, she replied dryly. So when is all this supposed to happen?

We'll need to leave just as soon as we can get the house on the market. They want me to start yesterday.

I'm not sure I like the idea. Maybe I'll just stay here. While secretly relieved she could finally get him away from his highly suspicious late afternoon 'extra work sessions', Juliana had always resisted Rich's tendency to assume that what he wished to do was what they would automatically do. Nevertheless, while rarely showing it, she actually loved him intensely and as she highly suspected he was cheating on her, she thought perhaps a new beginning would give them the opportunity to change his habits.

Let's not put the house on the market just yet, Juliana proposed. If it doesn't work out as well as you think it will, we can always come back here. You can get another job easily enough with your credentials and I can return to working with the food markets. For now, I can stay until the house is rented and it gives me a chance to recruit someone else into my position. Someone who I hope can do a decent job of it.

Okay, as you wish, Julie. But I'm supposed to be starting work in my new job the first of the month which is only two weeks away, so I hope you can come with me then.

As it turned out, Juliana found what she thought would be a satisfactory position by then and the house rented easily for a very nice monthly fee and they left the province in late April. They headed west in Rich's less than one year old Lexus, all-wheel drive, sport utility vehicle and with Juliana's functional four-door Honda Accord safely stowed on the aft ramp of the moving company's very large van.

Chapter Two

Eddie Wong knew that with the recently changed rules to casino gambling he wouldn't be able to follow the normal routine of personally bringing huge inputs of cash into the Encore Casino in Royal Bay. Nevertheless, his Chinese gang, or triad, handlers had arranged for the services of a number of accomplices, or smurfs and they would each take a portion of the money allocated to Eddie, gamble it, cash out and return the money to Eddie's international bank. The smurfs, twenty in total, were made up of a mixture of landed immigrant Chinese-Canadians, seniors, housewives and even married couples. All had been carefully recruited and trained and while not always fluent in English, they understood the international language of gambling very well. Each of them could be counted on to take the money the Chinese gang or triad had arranged for them so that they could buy just under $10,000 worth of chips and hold their own at the slot machines, roulette wheels and, in some cases, even the poker tables. But Eddie still chose to made frequent visits to the casino himself, partially to keep an eye on his charges, but also to ensure casino staff members weren't becoming suspicious about the number of transactions the smurfs were making.

The Encore Casino and its sister operation, the recently opened Essentials Casino, located at The Breakwater next to the cruise ship terminals, had been added to the list of BC gambling establishments the Chinese triad crime syndicates would use to conduct money laundering operations. For years, the majority of laundering activity in B.C. had happened in the Vancouver and Lower Mainland area, especially at the Lake Stone Casino in Richmond. It had been necessary to boost the number of outlets considerably however, as the fentanyl drug business had expanded dramatically in B.C. At the same time partially effective regulatory restrictions in respect to gambling cash amounts were put in place for the casinos and other gaming facilities.

Everything seemed very busy at Encore on this balmy mid-July Sunday evening. The casino had only recently opened, and while the facade reminded Eddie of a warehouse or airport hangar, it didn't seem to stop the gamblers from flocking through the door in droves. Still, the tall, dark blue walls and banks of spot-lights hanging from the suspended ceiling made him think of a huge cave. Nor was he impressed with the fake plank flooring, loud irritating back-ground music and flashing lights emanating from the video terminals. Well, it was a relief he didn't have to spend much time here. He could see how things were going and make his exit.

As he stepped into the main gaming floor, he noted there were eight of his charges present, placing bets from their bags of casino chips, happily losing or winning small amounts on each transaction at the video terminals or roulette wheels. They were all well aware the object wasn't to win a large jackpot, but simply to wager for a while, then cash in so that later the money could be claimed as gambling winnings.

Eddie knew that he would be noticed if he simply observed their transactions, so he exchanged some of the money he was carrying in a shoulder bag for an equal amount of small denomination gambling chips and made his way to one of the roulette wheels where he assumed he could remain inconspicuous. For about half an hour he simply stayed with odd or even numbers and watched his small bets increase or decrease accordingly. However, he was soon bored and decided he had observed as much as he needed to and had stayed long enough that he could cash in without drawing undue attention. He discreetly placed his returned money into the shoulder bag and more on a whim than anything else, decided to place a remaining chip he had forgotten in his pocket into one of the slot machines near the exit as he was leaving. Unfortunately, it was the wrong thing to do as the sinister machine noisily informed the entire casino clientele that it had coughed up a major win with a three-cherry payoff. That particular machine hadn't surrendered a large amount in quite some time and with odds of twelve thousand to one, Eddie was immediately the centre of attention.

Not sure what to do about it, he fished out the TITO, or ticket in, ticket out card from the machine, claimed his winnings and hurriedly made for the exits. Because the casino was particularly busy that evening, Eddie had been required to leave his late model rented BMW sedan on the top level of the parking lot. When he arrived back, while there were still plenty of other vehicles, the deck appeared to be empty of people. As he was unlocking his car he was suddenly struck forcefully on the head, so forcefully that the blow immediately killed him.

The report didn't reach the Westshore RCMP Detachment until 9:30 the next morning. It wasn't unusual for patrons to leave their vehicles in the Encore parking lot overnight. As the casino was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, many obsessed gamblers would stay at the betting tables through the night and then take advantage of the low-priced breakfast before making their way home or to work. It was only the discarded shoulder-bag lying next to the sedan that finally caught the security guard's attention and as he leaned down to pick it up he looked through the BMW's windshield and noticed Eddie's body.

When the call came in, the Officer in Charge of the Westshore Detachment, Inspector Tim Murphy had been sitting in his small conference room conducting his regular Monday morning briefing with his senior officers: Director of Operations, Staff Sergeant Avtar Chohan, Director of Investigations, Staff Sergeant Gary Collingham and the Officer in Charge of Operations Support, Sergeant Jill Owen. The discussion centered on reviewing the lack of progress concerning the on-going investigation of two recent cyber fraud cases. Both complaints were from businesses operating in the West Shore area whose IT systems had been breached and their financial accounts compromised.

So to date we know that an unknown party has hacked in to each company's business manager and has sent e-mails to the accounting department ordering wire transfers to third party accounts that eventually end up in the hands of the fraudsters committing this operation, Staff Sergeant Chohan reported.

Okay Avtar, do we know where the e-mails are coming from? asked Inspector Murphy. Is this a local scam?

We're still not sure. The e-mail server information seems to indicate that its local, but it's not that hard to channel e-mail addresses through various servers to make a particular message appear to be local. It could just as easily come from somewhere else in North America, or even overseas.

What about the tone of the messages? Does the sender appear to be familiar with the operations of the businesses being hacked, or the organizational structure of each business?

Well, those are good questions, sir, but no, the attached invoices seemed straight-forward and made claims for items purchased on a regular basis. In this case they are for advertising expenses, including web maintenance and local newspaper advertising. The manager in each case only became suspicious when invoices were received for the same expenses from the legitimate suppliers. Of course by then the first invoices had been paid and the money had disappeared into the stratosphere, or cyber-sphere to coin a phrase.

Tim was in the midst of suppressing a small chuckle over his Staff Sergeant's attempt at wit, when his Office Assistant, Judy Pierce interrupted their meeting to report they had just received a call from Royal Bay's Encore Casino stating that a body had been discovered in their parkade.

Thanks Judy. Transfer the call to me and I'll get the details.

This is Jim Trimble, Security Chief here at Encore, Inspector. One of my men has just found a body in a vehicle here at the casino and it appears that he may have been murdered. The victim has a large gash on the back of his head, which seems to have bled profusely, given the amount of blood surrounding the body.

Okay, Jim. I'll have someone from our General Investigation Section come out there immediately. In the meantime don't touch anything and keep everyone away from the crime scene.

Certainly, I will do that, Trimble answered curtly, irritated that some senior police officer would assume he didn't know how to do his job.

Tim quickly informed the others as to what the call was about. Can you send a couple of your boys down, Gary, to start the investigation? Also, I'll call our illustrious coroner, Joan Pemberton, and let her know to get over there.

I'll get Bill and Tom on it right away, sir, replied the Investigations Staff Sergeant, Gary Collingham. Sergeants Bill Parker and Tom Weir were the