Douglas Todd: Immigration fraud on a grand scale Saturday, November 21, 2015

By Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun

Many upper-middle-class Mainland Chinese seek a safe haven outside their country because they feel economically vulnerable, says Rong Chen, a Vancouver real estate consultant.

A Metro Vancouver man who made millions producing fraudulent documents for Mainland Chinese and helped them avoid paying taxes should be locked behind bars for the rest of his life, says Rong Chen.

Richmond resident Xun Wang’s companies hauled in $10 million over eight years by producing altered Chinese passports and fraudulent identities for up to 1,200 clients in arguably the largest immigration fraud case in Canadian history.

“How could Wang have done this so easily for 1,000 people? It’s ridiculous,” says Vancouver-based Chen, a real estate consultant raised in China who now helps wealthy Chinese invest in properties along the West Coast of North America.

Instead of life in prison, Richmond provincial court Judge Reg Harris last month sentenced “mastermind” Wang to seven years. He also has to pay a fine of $188,000 for falsely claiming unearned tax rebates, plus another $730,000 for evading Canadian taxes.

Seven illegal immigration consultants who worked for Wang also face charges, prosecutor Jessica Patterson said Wednesday. Arrest warrants remain out for two of them. Others remain under investigation by the Canada Border Services Agency.

The prime purpose of Wang’s operation was to convince Canadian officials his many clients resided in Canada for immigration purposes when they actually lived in China.

In addition to evading taxes himself, Wang, who was not a member of the Canadian Society of Immigration Consultants, helped his clients avoid paying taxes in Canada. On their behalf, he also falsely reported income so low that many obtained tax rebates.

Even though Chen believes some of the thousands of people in Canada and offshore who call themselves “immigration consultants” are legitimate, he called on the Liberal government to more rigorously regulate the country’s consultants and more effectively combat scams.

Chen’s views echo those of immigration law scholar Liu Guofu, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, who has predicted that Wang’s complex network — which employed at least 14 people in B.C., Alberta and China — will likely convince Ottawa to tighten its immigration requirements for Chinese people.

“There’s a huge demand for Canadian passports,” noted Chen, who said many upper-middle-class Mainland Chinese seek a safe haven outside their country because they feel economically vulnerable. He also said they want to escape China’s pollution and want their children to have an English-language education.

Court documents show Wang made millions by hiring staff to create thousands of counterfeit Chinese passport stamps, forged drivers’ licences, forged lawyers’ letters, false business cards, forged university letters, phoney paycheques and bogus Canadian tax documents.

The goal of Wang’s widespread deception — which the judge said was motivated entirely by greed — was to convince immigration authorities that more than 1,000 Mainland Chinese who did not live in Canada actually resided here, which made them eligible to become immigrants.

Judge Harris’s sentencing report outlines the fraudulent techniques used by Wang and his international network.

“The mechanics of false Canadian residency was done via passport frauds, address frauds, employee frauds, false documents and coaching clients to mislead citizenship officers,” the judge said.