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In late August, at a Vancouver conference attended by law enforcement officials, RCMP Insp. Bruce Ward outlined the details of E-Pirate.

Without naming the suspect he was talking about, Ward said that in late 2015 E-Pirate targeted a number of residences and several illegal casinos in Richmond.

“These are some of the illegal casinos he was setting up. He thought he could double-end it,” Ward said. “Not only loan the money, but then run the casino and take the profits.”

Ward explained the complex methods by which organized criminals run illegal casinos without having any cash on premises.

“The way our laws are written, now when they build the illegal casinos, there is no cash,” Ward said. “You go to another place of business and you sign a loan. You (gamble in the illegal casino, and) record what you lose, or what you win. Then you go back to the place of business and pay off your debt, from the loan you took out.”

Photo by B.C. Lottery Corp. / PNG

Jin’s claim that Liu has not repaid a $2.68-million loan is supported by an affidavit from “housewife” Jian Qiu Rong. Rong’s statement says that both she and Liu are from Shenyang, and she had heard of him “through my circle of friends in China.”

Rong says she met Liu socially in Richmond, and she learned that he was looking for a loan of up to $3 million, for an unknown purpose.

“When we first met, Xiao Bing Liu introduced himself to me as someone who started out doing real estate development in China,” Rong’s statement says. Rong says that she knew Jin “was in the business of lending money, (so) I introduced Paul King Jin to Xiao Bing Liu.”