Immigration fraud beyond precedent: Crown
Judge reserves decision on Xun Wang, who has pleaded guilty to eight charges
“Many, many hundreds” of immigrants obtained Canadian citizenship or permanent residence with the help of an unlicensed immigration consultant in Metro Vancouver who made millions altering passports, a court was told Wednesday.
Xun “Sunny” Wang appeared at a sentencing hearing in provincial court in Vancouver after pleading guilty to eight charges in connection with his immigration businesses.
Federal Crown counsel Bruce Harper said “definitely many, many hundreds” and possibly “well over 1,000” of Wang’s clients obtained Canadian citizenship or permanent resident status through Wang’s fraudulent businesses.
“There are certainly a great number of individuals whose status in Canada, whether permanent residence or citizenship, is now in question,” Harper said.
Wang’s businesses served more than 1,000 customers between 2006 and 2013, charging more than $10 million for services, court heard.
Along with six counts under the Criminal Code and the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, Wang has pleaded guilty to two counts under the Income Tax Act, including failing to report $2,722,305 of taxable income from 2007 to 2012.
And, despite the millions earned by his companies, court heard, Wang also claimed several thousand dollars of low-income tax benefits between 2008 and 2013, which Harper compared to robbing a bank, and then stealing the charitable donation can on the way out.
The Crown is seeking a sentence of seven-and-a-half years.
“The nature of this fraud is beyond any of the precedents,” said Harper.
Wang’s clients, Harper said, “are not the refugees we’re reading about in the paper in the last week,” but instead “well-to-do” foreign nationals willing to pay for fraud to get into Canada.
Wang’s defence counsel, Ritchie Clark, said an appropriate sentence was two-and-a-half years, after time already served. Wang has been in custody since June. Clark said Wang, a married father of two teenage boys, deserves consideration for pleading guilty.
Clark also said Wang’s case was different from some cases of immigration fraud or lawyer fraud, because there was no element of “breach of the trust.” Wang’s clients were not victims, Clark said, but were enlisting services “with eyes wide open.”
Judge Reg Harris said “there are collateral innocent victims here,” because Wang’s crimes could impact the children of parents who used his services.
“One could say, ‘Well, there’s no true victim,’ ” Harris said.
“There is a true victim in some of these: it’s the children.”
Judge Harris reserved decision on Wang’s sentence until next month.