Man sentenced in massive B.C. immigration fraud case
Credit to Author: Tiffany Crawford| Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2019 19:38:23 +0000
Another man who fraudulently helped more than 1,600 immigrants become Canadian citizens or permanent residents has been handed jail time, bringing the number of people sentenced in B.C.’s largest immigration fraud case to nine.
The Canada Border Services Agency and the Canada Revenue Agency announced Friday that Xiao Feng “Heki” He has been sentenced to 20 months in jail after pleading guilty to fraud charges for his role in the estimated $10-million New Can Consultants and Welling International Investments passport scam that took place over seven years.
As an unlicensed immigration consultant working for New Can, He was involved in passport fraud and misrepresentation offences involving 151 clients who paid approximately $1.2 million for these services, the Canada Border Services Agency said.
He also received a fine of $44,659, which is equivalent to the amount of taxes evaded between 2008 and 2011.
In sentencing, the judge noted that He received an additional two-month sentence due to his heavy involvement in the passport fraud scheme and the operation of the New Can office in China.
From 2006 to 2013, over 1,600 of New Can’s clients collectively paid approximately $10 million for fraudulent services. This included creating the fictitious appearance of Canadian residency to maintain permanent resident status and obtain Canadian citizenship.
To date, more than 1,000 of the scammers’ clients have either lost their status or been reported for inadmissibility in Canada. The Canada Revenue Agency says the other cases remain under investigation.
Others sentenced include (Fanny) Ma, Ming Kun (Makkie) Wu and Wen (Vivian) Jiang, who were sentenced in 2017 to 18 months in jail and fined a total of $220,000. Xun (Sunny) Wang, who also pleaded guilty to several charges, was sentenced in 2015 to seven years in jail and was fined more than $900,000.
Others sentenced are: Tian “Gary” Chen, who was given a conditional sentence of six months less a day and 40 hours of community service for counselling misrepresentation; Xiao Ben “Ben” Chu, who received a 12-month conditional sentence for counselling misrepresentation; Che Fang was handed a fine of $50,000; and Zheng Wen Ye, who ordered to pay a total of $94,532 in fines and given a conditional sentence of two years.
The investigations began after officers from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada in Alberta discovered that “numerous” permanent resident applicants claimed to live at the same addresses in Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, according to Canada Border Services.
The case was referred to the Canada Border Services Agency and it launched an investigation in 2012. It found the businesses falsified documents to make it look as though their clients had been living in Canada for the time required to apply for residency when in fact they were not residing in Canada.
The fraud included altering travel histories, passports, employment records and addresses.
— with file from Susan Lazaruk