566 ‘CLIENTS’, TWO ADDRESSES

P.E.I. CRACKS LAYERED IMMIGRATION SCAM

It started with a fancy watch nabbed at Halifax’s international airport.

But newly released search warrants have revealed the intricate sleuthing that led immigration officials to dive deeply into how hundreds of business immigrants used the same home address in P.E.I.

On Monday, charges were laid alleging siblings Ping Zhong and her brother, Yi Zhong, counselled business immigrants seeking permanent residency to provide residential addresses in P.E.I. though they didn’t really live there.

“The 566 clients associated to the two addresses … are well beyond what would be expected for a single dwelling residence and motel,” investigator Lana Hicks said in one warrant.

The nine thick search warrants tell the story of how the probe began on March 30, 2015, when a border officer red-flagged the watch.

Soon, Hicks, an 18-year veteran of the border service, was searching for two witnesses in a potential watchsmuggling case.

One man had provided 281 Brackley Point Rd. in Charlottetown as his address.

When Hicks called, she found a hotel reception desk, and decided to run a check through the agency’s case management system.

It turned out to be the Sherwood Inn and Motel, not far from the airport’s entrance.

A computer search showed 363 immigrants entering Canada under the province’s business immigration program had used the motel as a “mailing and/or residential address” to federal agencies.

Hicks wrote that she decided to open “a spin off ” file to see what was going on.

She then found from further database checks that 205 immigrants used 27 Beach Grove Rd., the home of hotel owner Ping Zhong, as their mailing or residential address.

By now, case number V0184978C was in full swing. The investigators started watching the travel plans and lives of various Chinese immigrants under the nominee program, documenting how they claimed the motel as an address while other records indicated they were living in places such as Vancouver or Toronto.

“Her permanent residency card would have been mailed to (the hotel) and I believe that it would have been received at the hotel and re-mailed to the client in Ontario,” Hicks wrote.

In September 2015, the search warrants say a team of three investigators conducted surveillance at the Charlottetown airport as a Chinese woman and her family arrived. They watched as the family went to the Delta hotel downtown, stayed there for a few nights, were taken for their interviews with the P.E.I. Office of Immigration, stopped at the Sherwood for a few minutes, and then flew out of the city.

In checks with Canada Post, the investigators say they found mail — including key immigration documents — being sent to the Sherwood or Ping Zhong’s residence wasn’t being redirected.

Reached this week, Ping Zhong, 60, declined to comment and said she and her 58-year-old brother have hired a lawyer. They will appear in court next month.

The Canada Border Services Agency alleges the siblings “aided and abetted” misrepresentations by seven immigrants. However, the yearlong effort of surveillance also claims 566 immigrants in the provincial nominee program submitted the same two addresses as their principal residence to Ottawa between 2008 and 2015.