B.C. Karaoke Bartender Faces Prison for Laundering $500K in Undercover Sting

A Richmond bartender who once worked nights at a karaoke club is now at the centre of one of B.C.’s most significant money laundering cases.

Alexandra Joie Chow, 37, faces up to 22 months in prison after admitting she helped undercover police officers convert bundles of cash — up to $70,000 at a time — into clean bank drafts. Crown prosecutors say Chow provided “a professional money laundering service” to people she believed were international cocaine traffickers.

At her sentencing hearing Thursday, prosecutor David Hainey urged the judge to impose real jail time, citing the Cullen commission’s findings that money laundering fuels B.C.’s criminal economy. “A conditional sentence does not adequately represent the condemnation of the community,” Hainey told the court.

Chow was arrested in 2021 after investigators with B.C.’s illegal gaming enforcement team linked her to a man suspected of loan sharking and extortion. Though initially reluctant, Chow eventually agreed to arrange cash loans and launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for commissions. She told officers she only kept one per cent for herself, with the rest paid to contacts who supplied the bank drafts — including, she claimed, a bank employee.

Her lawyer, Josh Oppal, argued she should serve her sentence at home under strict conditions, saying Chow had been “trapped” by the sting and has no prior record. He described her as remorseful and now working as a sous-chef, though still pulling occasional shifts at the karaoke bar.

In her own words to the judge, Chow apologized and admitted she had not grasped the seriousness of her crimes. “I’m so sorry that this happened. I just didn’t know this is that serious until that happened,” she said.

Justice Richard Browning reserved his decision until November. The case marks the first “pure money laundering” sentencing since the Cullen commission, which concluded that billions in illicit cash had flowed through B.C.’s casinos, real estate, and financial systems.