Sentencing hearing reveals details of immigration fraud

Man induced immigrants to come to Canada for jobs that no longer existed

An Edmonton man who pleaded guilty to breaking Canada’s immigration laws sat silently in court Monday as his lawyer and the Crown prosecutor presented a joint submission for his sentencing.

Seong Yong Park, also known as David Park, pleaded guilty to three offences under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act on May 9, including acting as an unauthorized immigration consultant.

The Crown and defence asked for Park to receive a conditional sentence of two years less a day and pay $42,000 in restitution, to be divided equally among 12 victims. Judge S.R. Creagh is expected to deliver her decision June 29.

An agreed statement of facts shows Park recruited at least 20 workers, most of them from the Philippines, and charged them $4,500 each for his services. Part of the fee covered the cost of a labour market opinion, which allows businesses to hire foreign workers and migrants to apply for a Canadian work permit.

Authorized immigration consultants are not permitted to charge for recruitment costs.

In about a dozen cases between 2012 and 2014, workers arrived in Edmonton and learned the jobs approved on their temporary work permits were no longer available.

In some of those cases, Park induced the employees to come to Canada, despite knowing or being “wilfully blind to the fact that the job offered no longer existed.”

Instead, he offered the migrants work in other businesses, which put them at risk of being thrown out of the country.

One of Park’s clients was working in Taiwan when he was recruited by Park’s business, Immigration and Work Services Agency, according to the agreed statement of facts. It took the man more than a year to save up the $4,500 fee, but he dreamed of becoming a Canadian permanent resident and hoped to make enough money to support his family in the Philippines.

Park sent the man a labour market opinion and contract offering him work at a convenience store in Vermilion. He accepted the job and arranged his flights to Canada.

An associate of Park’s met the man in Vancouver and collected the final instalment of $1,000 in July 2013. The man soon learned he would be working at a gas station in Mundare, rather than the convenience store in Vermilion.

“He was very afraid about the prospect of working without papers because he knew it meant he would be working illegally,” the statement said. “He felt he had no choice.”

In December 2013, the man was arrested by Inland Enforcement officers, the plainclothes unit of the Canada Border Services Agency that tracks down foreign nationals in the country illegally.

“He was sad and sick” on the day of the raid, the statement said. “He stated that he could not sleep for three months after the raid. He did not have work, but still had bills to pay and needed to support his family.”

Inland Enforcement did not report the illegal employees at the Mundare gas station “because it was determined that the foreign nationals were victims.”

In court, defence lawyer Nicole Stewart argued Park was remorseful and takes responsibility for his actions.

She described how Park, an immigrant, was sympathetic to the workers’ situations when the original jobs fell through and how he felt it was “too late.”

“I worked in haste to find them employment. I was thinking of their families back home,” Park wrote in a letter submitted in court.

A letter from Park’s daughter submitted in court describes him as a compassionate, selfless man who works tirelessly to help people in Edmonton’s Korean and Filipino communities.

He was very afraid about the prospect of working without papers because he knew it meant he would be working illegally.