The CEO of ShredWise, the company that came under fire after allegations were made it left sensitive documents exposed to the public, says he has evidence that the allegations are false.
“The allegations that we store unshredded documents in bins at our truck site are simply untrue and I can tell you that in the past week, we’ve since uncovered clear evidence that supports what we’ve maintained all along – that our procedures were deliberately contravened in this instance,” ShredWise CEO Tino Fluckiger wrote to Peace Arch News.
“No documents, casino cards or any other papers should ever be in our inventory of empty collection bins which we give our customers to use.”
Fluckiger said his company has turned the matter over to the RCMP. The Surrey RCMP confirmed to PAN Wednesday that they are investigating a report received from ShredWise.
“So with a police investigation underway, I can’t say much more,” Fluckiger said.
The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) has made changes to its policy after troves of used casino cards were allegedly left exposed to the public.
Earlier this month, News 1130 reported that it was alerted by a “whistleblower” of bins of unshredded documents and piles of intact Grand Villa Casino cards in a Surrey truck park parking lot.
The radio-station also reported that sensitive medical documents – including someone’s HIV test results – were left exposed to the public. Fraser Health has said that it does not use ShredWise’s services.
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BCLC media officer Matt Lee told PAN via email Tuesday that BCLC has directed Grand Villa to replace all playing cards with a new series in order to mitigate the possibility of discarded, intact playing cards being put into play.
“Out of an abundance of caution, BCLC directed all B.C. casinos to cease the shredding of used playing cards by contracted document shredding services until further notice,” Lee wrote to PAN.
“Service providers may use alternatives including drilling with standard card-punching equipment or industrial incineration in accordance with BCLC standards for the secure destruction of gambling supplies. BCLC has verified that no other B.C. gambling and entertainment facilities use Shredwise to destroy gambling supplies.”
Fluckiger told PAN that the privacy of ShredWise clients remains their top priority, “and as I stated previously, we were as surprised as anyone at this development.”
“ShredWise has been in business for 13 years and shreds more than 16 million documents every month. I have never seen an issue like this before and we will take every measure we can to ensure that it doesn’t happen again,” Fluckiger wrote.
