Istuary CEO sued for fraud, believed to have fled to China with investor money

By Amy Chen

The CEO of the troubled Vancouver-based tech company Istuary is being sued by a lawyer who invested money in the firm.

Vancouver Lawyer Joe G. Carangi, who invested $138,000 in Istuary Investment Fund, is alleging that CEO Yi An “Ethan” Sun and his wife Yulan “Amy” Hu spent investor money to buy homes for themselves in the lower mainland, fund their personal lifestyle, and to acquire companies and shares in China^[1]https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-G2xjXkuEpCaktBbk9fZDdiUE0/view.

Carangi filed the case at the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver days before the Canadian Minister of Citizenship and Immigration designated Istuary Idea Labs Inc, part of the Istuary Group, as a designated incubator for the startup visa program on August 19, 2017^[2]http://www.gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2017/2017-08-19/html/notice-avis-eng.php.

Corporate filings show that Istuary Group companies have received more than $10 million dollars from investors in the US and Canada^[3]http://www.bcsc.bc.ca/ViewDocument.aspx?DocNum=V7B4O6XBL7R5N7NAM6J5K7H9B7X3^[4]https://bcsc.bc.ca/About_Issuers/Issuer_Information/?partyid=R7SBF6TBC7GAY7UBF6F4G7S0

The employees of Istuary Innovation Group are complaining that they have not been paid since May ^[5]https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6317362533829353472/

Employees we talked to are alleging that CEO Ethan Sun and CFO Brian Chen have fled to China with investors money.

Brian Chen is also named as a defendant in Carangi’s case.

In another surprising twist, Carangi alleges that he was introduced to Sun and Hu by ChiYuen “Julia” Lau, the Vancouver realtor behind the infamous 68-million-dollar Nelson Street property flip uncovered by South China Morning Post^[6]http://www.scmp.com/comment/blogs/article/1937267/stampede-inside-story-vancouvers-wildest-property-deal-gone-7200.

The suit alleges that Sun and Hu have frozen all assets of Istuary and all its subsidiaries, estimated to be worth $200 million, to acquire a Chinese company worth $600 million.

None of the allegations has been proven in court.

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