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A Chinese bank has won a landmark ruling against a Chinese man who allegedly disappeared from China with an unpaid $10-million dollar loan in 2014, and quickly purchased four Vancouver-area homes.

China CITIC Bank won a freezing order against three luxury homes in Surrey last summer. But the bank won’t be able to collect payment against the properties in the case.

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In B.C. Supreme Court in February, Shibiao Yan was ordered to comply with an arbitration ruling in China to repay China CITIC Bank for the loan he took out in 2014, as president of a company named Tanyuan Wood.

CITIC alleged that Yan and his wife Yahui Gao bought a Vancouver home and three South Surrey homes worth about $8 million in total over several months in mid-2014, shortly after he withdrew $10-million in one transaction from the bank’s line of credit.

“Based on … routine anti-money laundering due diligence, CITIC Bank believes that Mr. Yan and (his wife) Ms. Gao disappeared from China,” legal filings from the bank say.