Man fires back at attorney general in response to civil forfeiture case
A B.C. man facing a forfeiture case for millions of dollars claims the case against him is a result of the “improper and abusive” direction of B.C. Attorney-General David Eby.
Also named as acting improperly are law enforcement agencies and the province’s civil forfeiture office, according to Hoy Pang Chan’s response to the civil forfeiture suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court.
Chan, also known as Stephen Hai Peng Chen, was identified in 2015 by the RCMP’s E-Pirate investigation among a number of customers of the underground bank Silver International in Richmond that allegedly laundered as much as $220 million a year.
E-Pirate is considered B.C.’s largest money-laundering investigation, but charges against two of the accused were stayed suddenly last November with no explanation.
Chan was arrested but not charged in the 2015 investigation, according to a Postmedia report in January.
Following the stayed charges, the B.C. civil forfeiture office launched suits to get access to assets, including houses and cash, from several of those arrested in the Silver International investigation.
The threshold for proving a civil claim is lower than for a criminal conviction, a balance of probabilities instead of beyond a reasonable doubt.
In his response, Chan noted that in Nov. 29, 2018, Eby publicly expressed disappointment with the collapse of criminal charges against Silver International.
Chan’s response also notes that no steps were taken to initiate the civil forfeiture suit against him until late 2018, years after the search and seizures related to the Silver International investigation.
“The defendant further pleads that the herein proceedings, as well as any civil forfeiture proceedings related to any investigation of Silver International, have occurred at the behest of and improper and abusive direction of the (Attorney General of B.C.) or by law enforcement agencies and the (director of civil forfeiture),” says Chan’s response.
The B.C. attorney general’s office said Thursday that it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing civil forfeiture action.
In the B.C. civil forfeiture claim filed in January, Chan is accused of laundering money from drug trafficking through purchasing and paying off properties in Vancouver and Richmond.
The civil forfeiture office is suing to seize an East Fifth Avenue house and West 42nd apartment in Vancouver whose combined assessed value is $2.7 million, and more than $67,000 in cash.
Chan’s parents, Xiong Guang Chen and Jue Ming Chen, also owners of the properties, are named in the suit.
Chan and his parents deny all the allegations in the civil forfeiture suit, including that the two homes and money are proceeds of crime.
Chan also says that search and seizures used to obtain evidence violated his constitutional rights.
As part of the E-Pirate investigation, $2 million was seized at Silver International in a police raid on Oct. 15, 2015.
That same day, police seized $60,010 in bundled cash found in a black nylon bag hidden in the drum of a clothes dryer in Chan’s then-residence in Richmond on Lansdowne Road, according to court documents.
Also in the nylon bag was a wallet containing about $3,300 in cash in U.S., Taiwan and Hong Kong dollars, as well as Japanese yen, Chinese yuan and Burmese kyat.
The next day, $3,880 in cash was seized from Chan when he was arrested in his vehicle.
The court documents allege that Chan, “lacking legitimate income,” in 2015 directed an accounting firm to prepare, on his behalf, fraudulent-employment letters and pay statements in order to support a mortgage financing.
Chan was nabbed in a separate 2015 RCMP investigation in Kelowna, which was dubbed E-NAOS, on allegations of drug trafficking, and faces charges, according to court documents.
Chan has a criminal record dating back to 1990 that includes convictions for assault with a weapon; assault causing bodily harm; possession of property obtained by crime; making, having or dealing in instruments of counterfeiting; and extortion.