DONOR LINKED TO $5M FRAUD
Fundraiser gave thousands to B.C. Liberals
• A prominent B.C. Liberal donor and fundraiser, Paul Oei, defrauded investors of about $5 million in an immigration scheme, a B.C. Securities Commission panel has ruled.
Postmedia News has reported extensively on the case of Oei, including testimony from Chinese investors that alleged Oei promoted his connections with top Canadian politicians, including then-B.C. premier Christy Clark and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In the case, Oei was accused of bilking investors of $6.9 million in an immigration-investment scam surrounding Cascade, a proposed Port Coquitlam recycling plant. Of $13.3 million raised for the project, almost half went into Oei’s personal bank accounts, his immigration business Canadian Manu, and for renting luxury cars, including a Bentley. The panel heard that Oei impressed investors by “rubbing elbows” with politicians, and that Clark and her B.C. Liberals received $37,888 in political donations that came directly from investor funds for Cascade.
Last year, the B.C. Liberals told Postmedia that if allegations against Oei are proven, “we would return the funds — or forfeit to Elections B.C.”
On Wednesday, a party spokesman stated: “We will follow through on our commitment.”
The panel found that Oei used Canadian Manu and various numbered companies to divert 63 investments, totalling just over $5 million.
“The respondents misappropriated these funds and used them for their own purposes and not as the investors were told they would be used,” the panel stated.
The panel has directed parties in the Oei case to make submissions on potential sanctions.
The panel heard that Oei instilled confidence in the investors — many of whom did not speak English — by having them transfer funds into the legal trust of Peschisolido & Company. The firm was directed by Richmond B.C., Liberal MP Joe Peschisolido at the time.
A statement from the panel on Wednesday said: “In most cases, investors paid their funds into an account with the respondents’ counsel, who dispersed the investor funds into six bank accounts of Canadian Manu and Oei.”
Some of the investors have sued Peschisolido. Peschisolido and his firm deny any wrongdoing.
One plaintiff, Yicheng Jiang, claimed his group of investors was induced by Oei to use illegal underground banking transactions in China to wire about $4 million into Peschisolido’s legal trust fund.
Jiang’s legal filings say part of Oei’s alleged scheme was promoting his government connections.
“(Oei) told me that he is taking care of a problem for Canada,” Jiang explained to Postmedia. “So the government provides some benefits as a thank you, (Oei) said. That was his promise; the project would take care of our immigration for us.”
Jiang also claimed that Oei clearly touted his political heft.
“Oei mentioned the premier and high-level federal ministers have ‘very special’ relations with him,” Jiang said. “He mentioned Christy Clark, and he mentioned some MPs, including Joe Peschisolido.”
Oei and his wife have been active in B.C. political fundraising circles. They have donated $8,477 to the federal Liberals since 2014. And in July 2015, Oei’s company Organic Eco-Centre Corp. sponsored a pre-election luncheon in Richmond featuring then Liberal leader Justin Trudeau. The company was named in the B.C. Securities Commission allegations against Oei.
According to Jiang, when Chinese investors demanded their money back in the fall of 2015, Oei sent the investors photos of Oei “hugging Trudeau and all these celebratory photos.”
“It was like, ‘Look at my relationship with the prime minister. We are like buddies’,” Jiang recalled.
Liberal party spokesman Braeden Caley would not say whether the party will return funds donated by Oei.
“Mr. Oei has donated to multiple provincial and federal political parties (including the Conservative Party), and he has no position with the Liberal Party of Canada,” Caley said in an email.