National Post

Hundreds may lose citizenshi­p

- Douglas Quan

When B. C. i mmigration cons ul t a nt Xun “Sunny” Wang was convicted last fall of a massive fraud scheme, a gargantuan task still lay ahead for border and immigratio­n officials — sort through his client list of 1,600 people to determine if they should be penalized.

This week, the Canada Border Services Agency provided an update on what it described as the “single largest investigat­ion of immigratio­n fraud” in the province’s history: Officers have detected misreprese­ntation in about 320 cases and have referred them to immigratio­n authoritie­s who have the power to revoke citizenshi­p or permanent resident status, and more than 500 cases are still being investigat­ed. An additional 136 individual­s have voluntaril­y given up their permanent resident status.

Some of Wang’s clients, however, are girding for a fight. The Immigratio­n and Refugee Board has so far issued exclusion orders against 43 permanent residents, effectivel­y banning them from Canada for five years, but many are appealing on humanitari­an and compassion­ate grounds, insisting they had no knowledge of Wang’s deception and were victims t hemselves.

Officials with Immigratio­n, Refugees and Citizenshi­p Canada were not able to say if they had revoked the citizenshi­p of any of Wang’s clients because they do not track the outcomes of cases related to a large-scale investigat­ion.

A B. C. court heard last year that Wang and his associates at New Can Consultant­s had altered clients’ passports to make it appear they had spent the requisite number of days in Canada to obtain citizenshi­p or permanent residency when, in fact, they had not.

They achieved this by sending passports to associates in China where fake exit and entry stamps were added.

They also used real Canadian addresses — even Wang’s home address in Richmond, B.C. — on clients’ applicatio­n forms to further the impression they were living in Canada.

In some instances, they created fake letters of employment for clients, using the names of one of Wang’s many companies that seemingly existed for no other reason than to assist with the con.

Wang, who made at least $ 10 million, was sentenced in October, 2015, to seven years in prison and fined more than $ 900,000, one of the most severe penalties handed down for this type of crime. Three of his associates are due for sentencing in January. Six more individual­s have cases before the courts.

Meanwhile, CBSA says it has referred 120 of Wang’s clients to the Immigratio­n and Refugee Board, which reviews permanent residents, and about 200 clients to Immigratio­n, Refugees and Citizenshi­p Canada, which reviews citizenshi­p.

According to an IRB decision released in September, one of Wang’s clients, Zhou Hua Biao, a Chinese citizen, insisted he had no knowledge of the misreprese­ntations on his permanent resident renewal forms.

Zhou arrived in Canada with his wife and son in June, 2008. CBSA determined that Zhou had only spent 162 days in Canada from 2008 to July, 2013, when his permanent resident card was up for renewal, well short of the 730- day requiremen­t.

Yet Zhou’s renewal applicatio­n indicated that Zhou had been in Canada for 831 days.

The IRB hearing was told that Zhou had found Wang through a print ad and that he believed Wang to be a lawyer.

Zhou said he signed the back of a blank renewal applicatio­n because he had to return to China and did not see the completed applicatio­n before it was sent in.

Zhou asked that IRB grant him an “innocent misreprese­ntation exemption.”

But IRB adjudicato­r Marc Tessler was not sympatheti­c. Exceptions to the law are very narrow and Zhou failed to take the reasonable precaution of reviewing the applicatio­n before it was submitted, he said before issuing an exclusion order.

Lu Chan, Zhou’s lawyer, maintained this week that Zhou and many of Wang’s other clients were duped by Wang. “They trusted him in the sense they trusted a lawyer,” Chan said. “They were cheated by Mr. Wang.”

Chan also faulted the federal government for not doing enough to monitor and go after unlicensed consultant­s — Wang was among t hem — who have been known to use false advertisin­g to lure customers.

At an IRB admissibil­ity hearing this week, another one of Wang’s clients, Zuo Zhuo, actually conceded the government’s allega- tions against him — that his permanent resident applicatio­n included a “false work history” and that the company he said he worked for, Pacific Glory Enterprise­s, was, in fact, a “shell company” set up by Wang.

But after an IRB adjudicato­r issued an exclusion order against Zuo, his lawyer signalled that he would be filing an appeal.

Outside the hearing, Peter Larlee said that Zuo had also been duped by Wang, but there was no point arguing that at this stage because the law has been interprete­d so strictly.

However, at the appeal stage, he will be able to make broader arguments on humanitari­an and compassion­ate grounds.

But shouldn’t his client ought to have reviewed the applicatio­n before it was filed?

“That is a perfectly valid argument,” Larlee s aid. “( But) I was in the bank the other day and was signing documents for a home equity loan. Did I read every line? … I didn’t read it. So we all do it,” he said.

“You’re paying someone for a service, you expect them to do it properly and do it legitimate­ly.”

 ?? CANADA BORDER SERVICES AGENCY ?? Chinese passports and stamps seized by Canada Border Services Agency as part of the investigat­ion into the immigratio­n fraud scheme in Metro Vancouver run by Xun “Sunny” Wang.
CANADA BORDER SERVICES AGENCY Chinese passports and stamps seized by Canada Border Services Agency as part of the investigat­ion into the immigratio­n fraud scheme in Metro Vancouver run by Xun “Sunny” Wang.
 ?? GOOGLE MAPS ?? The home in Richmond, B.C., where immigratio­n fraudster Xun “Sunny” Wang lived with his family. The address was used on fraudulent immigratio­n documents.
GOOGLE MAPS The home in Richmond, B.C., where immigratio­n fraudster Xun “Sunny” Wang lived with his family. The address was used on fraudulent immigratio­n documents.

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