Article content

A new lengthy B.C. Supreme Court judgment reveals the complicated financial and real-estate legerdemain gatekeepers face trying to regulate ultra-wealthy Chinese investors in Canada.

Those on both sides in the litigation, who called each other liars, acted as if they cared little about financial transparency or honesty in record-keeping even in deals involving sums that would stagger ordinary Canadians.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Ian Mulgrew: Following real estate money from China — impossible! Back to video

As a result, the court concluded it was virtually impossible to “follow the money” to determine who paid what and who truly owned three multi-million homes on Vancouver’s west side.

“The very structure of the transactions at issue in this case was unusual in the Canadian context, as it involved large sums of money changing hands over several years, without any written agreements in place or any common accounting practices,” Justice Susan Griffin said.

She explained the two rich families from the People’s Republic were “wealthy enough not to be bothered to account with each other down to the penny, or indeed to the nearest tens of thousands of dollars.”