{"id":4388,"date":"2026-06-28T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4388\/west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T14:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T21:00:14","slug":"west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4388\/west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme\/","title":{"rendered":"West Kelowna man implicated in illegal cannabis, money laundering scheme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A West Kelowna man’s bank account has been frozen for five years since police in Quebec cracked down on an illegal cannabis business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the BC government wants to seize the cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2021, Ayrton Hunt was working as a cashier at Tim Horton’s when, in a two-month span, $255,000 was deposited into his bank account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BC government alleges Hunt was an account holder for a black market cannabis scheme. The BC Civil Forfeiture Office is now taking him to court in order to seize the money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commonly referred to as “money mule,” the account holder’s bank account hosts cash as part of a money laundering scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, the cannabis was cultivated “using the veneer of medical licenses”, then it was sold on black market websites, according to court documents. Customers paid via e-transfer and the money was circulated through shell corporations, then distributed through various accounts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cannabis, meanwhile, was mailed to customers through Canada Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt, along with his mother Amanda, had three bank accounts that received cash as part of the scheme, but only his TD Bank account is at issue, according to BC Supreme Court documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Quebec investigation, titled “POSTCURE,” ended with charges against eight men, implicated as part of the so-called Seguin Network, in 2021. Hunt was never charged, but his TD account was frozen since June of that year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, all the criminal charges were stayed due to a conflict of interest among lawyers, in which one of the defence counsel and a prosecutor were engaged in a secretive affair.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the civil forfeiture office, a Quebec judge rescinded the freezing order on Hunt’s bank account, which was set to come into effect this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The civil forfeiture office successfully applied to a BC judge to again freeze the account as it seeks to seize the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not clear how much money is remaining in the account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunt and his mother have not been criminally charged in BC for their alleged role in the scheme, but civil forfeiture laws do not require the defendant to be convicted or prosecuted in order for their assets to be seized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the civil forfeiture office’s court application, the focus of the case will be “whether the
property is tainted by illegality, not whether its owner is a criminal.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The office’s knowledge of the Quebec-based cannabis and money laundering scheme is also not clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The allegations have not been proven and Hunt has not responded in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The province wants to seize his bank account.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":4389,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"guid":"","source":"","byline":"","published":"","updated":"","_infotelid":"","_prepressid":"","_multisite_post_sync":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[727,380,381],"tags":[],"region":[309,310,311,312],"class_list":["post-4388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-local","category-topnews","region-kamloops","region-kelowna","region-penticton","region-vernon"],"blocksy_meta":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4388\/west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"West Kelowna man implicated in illegal cannabis, money laundering scheme","url":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4388\/west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/news\/4388\/west-kelowna-man-implicated-in-illegal-cannabis-money-laundering-scheme\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/in420-83fe8ae25aa92c359e5862c7bdf20633102f1b74810651e2b8f19cee3cc632ca.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/infonews.ca\/in420\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/in420-83fe8ae25aa92c359e5862c7bdf20633102f1b74810651e2b8f19cee3cc632ca.jpg"},"articleSection":"Featured","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Levi Landry"}],"creator":["Levi Landry"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"iN420","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2026-06-28T21:00:00Z","datePublished":"2026-06-28T21:00:00Z","dateModified":"2026-06-28T21:00:14Z"},"rendered":"