By ThinkPol staff
A Vancouver realtor and his wife aided and abetted foreign buyers in committing immigration fraud and forgery, according a recently delivered judgement in a case between two feuding families from China battling over the ownership of multiple multi-million dollar Westside properties.
The realtor is identified as “Mr. Gu, a realtor associated with Pacific Place-ARC Realty Ltd.” in Fu v. Zhu[1]Fu v Zhu, 2018 BCSC 9 (CanLII), retrieved on 2018-01-08, where the Honourable Madam Justice Griffin of the B.C. Supreme Court has rendered a 552-page judgement after unravelling reams of “inconsistent” testimonies from parties with “serious credibility problems”.
The third plaintiff Mr. Xiao Feng Fu (referred to as P3 in the judgement) hatched a scheme to deceive Canada’s immigration department with the help of defendendant Ms. Cui Yun Zhu (D1), realtor Mr. Gu and his wife Jie Chen, according to the judge’s ruling.
“Indeed, P3 was sophisticated in lying, including scheming to deceive Canadian immigration authorities in 2012 so that he could maintain permanent residency status without spending the necessary days residing in Canada.” the judgement reads. “This scheme involved him pretending to rent accommodation in Vancouver by writing cheques for rent to D1; pretending to be employed by Jie Chen, the wife of the family’s realtor, Mr. Gu, who pretended to pay him employment income (all of which was paid back behind the scenes by payment from P2 to Mr. Gu); having someone use his credit card in Canada in his absence; and then in 2013 falsely reporting to police in China that he had lost his permanent residency card which would have noted when he truly was in Canada, so that he could falsely claim he was in Canada during the period he pretended to pay rent and to receive employment income.”
Undisputed evidence shows that the realtor helped plaintiffs Mr. Guoqing Fu (P1) and Ms. Chunqin Zhou (P2) commit forgery when buying the property at 3561 Mayfair Avenue (Mayfair), according to the judgement.
“On November 25, 2010, D1 signed a contract of purchase and sale in the names of P1 and P2, to purchase Mayfair,” Justice Griffin writes. “The evidence is that Mr. Gu had no trouble signing the document falsely attesting to witnessing P1 and P2 signing it instead of D1. He did not testify at trial but this fact was undisputed by the parties.”
ThinkPol reached out to the Real Estate Council of BC, the body that licenses realtors in the province, and the the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver to ask if any action is being taken against the Mr. Gu.
“The Real Estate Council of BC is aware of the judgement involving Mr. Gu,” the Real Estate Council said in an email. “While we take allegations of misconduct seriously, the Council’s investigations are confidential. That means we cannot confirm nor deny whether there may be an investigation underway into the actions of any individual licensee or brokerage, or whether a complaint has been received concerning any licensee or brokerage, unless and until a date has been set for a Discipline Hearing.”
The Real Estate Board did not respond to our request for comment.
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| 1. | ↑ | Fu v Zhu, 2018 BCSC 9 (CanLII), retrieved on 2018-01-08 |