Ontario’s court battle to keep $40 million in assets seized from an alleged gambling ring began on Tuesday with debate about how roughly $270,000 ended up in a Mississauga man’s bedroom.

The bundles of cash and the man’s connection with an alleged gambling ring means the province should get to keep it, a lawyer for the Ministry of the Attorney General argued.

“There is overwhelming evidence that there was unlawful activity occurring,” lawyer Susan Keenan said at a Superior Court of Justice hearing.

“The bulk of the money found in his bedroom is directly connected to and was derived from that illegal activity,” she said. “There is nothing else that can explain this amount of money” and “no credible or reasonable explanation.”