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“He impressed by driving expensive cars and rubbing elbows with politicians,” a securities commission lawyer said this week, describing the context in which investors were allegedly cheated by Oei.

Teresa Tomchak, counsel for Oei, said he denies using investor funds that were meant for Cascade for his own purposes. Tomchak said Oei set up investments for the project as recommended by his legal counsel at the time, which was Peschisolido and Co.

Jiang and his group invested $4 million that went through Peschisolido’s law corporation, and through to Oei and Oei’s companies, the panel heard. Jiang said he and his investor group lost everything.

After a day of testimony, he was asked to tell the panel how he has been impacted in the case. He said his family’s and his wife’s parents’ life savings were lost to “swindlers.”

Jiang said his wife attempted suicide because of the loss. She was resuscitated, but when she recovered, she had lost all hope, Jiang said. He said she insisted on a divorce and he was left to father their two young children alone. Jiang said that business has now slowed down in China, and he has no hope that he can recover his losses and pay back those that he owes. He said he can’t even pay his children’s medical or school fees.

“At times I wanted to kill myself,” Jiang said, as he shook with loud sobs. “It is just because of the two children that I can’t die. Even my son said to me, ‘Didn’t you say Canada is a country ruled by law?’ I don’t know how much longer I can continue like this.”