Chinese fraud suspect Shiyuan Shen sues Canada Border Services Agency

Richmond businessman claims Crown 'intentionally withheld' information that could help refugee claim

By Jason Proctor, CBC News Posted: Sep 22, 2015

A  businessman in Richmond, B.C., wanted by Chinese authorities for fraud, is suing the Canada Border Services Agency and Canada's attorney general for failing to disclose information he says could have helped his refugee claim.

Shiyuan Shen arrived in Canada in May 2007 but has been wanted in China since 2002. He's named on an Interpol warrant in relation to a $20-million fraud scheme involving a steel company he ran in Shanghai.

Shen, who owns a kitchen cabinet company, claims the charges were trumped up for political reasons.

In a B.C. Supreme Court notice of civil claim, he says the Crown "intentionally withheld" exculpatory information at his refugee hearing as well as proof that evidence against him was obtained through torture.

As a result, Shen claims he was denied asylum in 2013. A Federal Court judge has since ordered a new refugee hearing because of the withheld disclosure.

Are Chinese allegations reliable?

The case raises similar issues to those addressed in the case of Mo Yeung (Michael) Ching, another prominent Lower Mainland resident identified as a fugitive from Chinese justice in Canadian court proceedings.

Ching, a real estate developer who faces charges of embezzlement in China, recently won a key battle to obtain a new refugee hearing in this country.

This photo appears on an Interpol arrest warrant for B.C. businessman Shiyuan Shen, who is wanted in China for fraud. (Interpol)

Both men claim the charges against them were manufactured by political enemies. And both claim the Chinese government tortured and intimidated witnesses.

Shen's lawyer, Lorne Waldman, said he has "profound concern" about how Canada is dealing with Chinese economic fugitives.

"We have a regime that is notorious for torturing people in order to force confessions, where the judiciary is not independent and where there is not any rule of law," Waldman said.

"So our government is aiding and abetting a corrupt regime that tortures people into forced confessions to try and force people who are claiming and declaring their innocence to go back to a country where they are not going to get a fair trial. It's completely unacceptable."

Assertions called improbable

Court documents trace Shen's path since he left China and arrived in New York in February 2002.

He remained in the U.S. after the expiry of his visa, marrying an American woman. That relationship ended in divorce in 2006 and Shen headed to Canada the next year.

He crossed the border at Niagara Falls using a New York driver's licence, but claimed he then discovered he wouldn't be able to go back to the U.S. without a passport.

Shen then met and married a Canadian woman who helped him apply for permanent residence. They were told his application was approved, but when he attendedCBSA offices in November 2010, officers arrested him instead.

Shen applied for refugee status in 2011. He claims he didn't know he was even wanted in China until 2010.

At his first refugee hearing, immigration authorities called those assertions "highly improbable," noting Shen had spoken by telephone with relatives in China since the Interpol warrant was issued. 

"His behaviour is consistent with one who is aware that he is wanted in his country and cannot return there," the minister of public safety said in a submission to the Immigration and Refugee Board.

'Propaganda and fabrications'

Shen maintains he had nothing to do with illegal activities in China and was targeted for political reasons.

At his first hearing, the Crown called the deputy head of the Shanghai public security bureau's economic crime investigation department to testify against Shen.

On cross-examination, Waldman challenged him on the Tiananmen Square massacre, the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners and police brutality in China.

"I took him to all the human rights reports and he said they were all propaganda and fabrications," Waldman said.

"So this is the type of evidence that is being put before these tribunals when Canada is trying to deport people back to China."

In the overturned 2013 decision, IRB member Gordon McRae argued that being "guarded" about China's human rights records didn't necessarily make the officer untruthful. 

"Evidence of a witness from an authoritarian state must be examined closely and extreme caution should be exercised if it is to be relied on solely to establish grounds for exclusion," he wrote.

"Conversely, simply because a witness is from an authoritarian state does not mean that their evidence is automatically unreliable."

New hearing

McRae denied Shen refugee status in 2013, finding "serious reasons" to believe he had committed a non-political crime in China.

Shen is now awaiting a new hearing based on full disclosure ordered by the Federal Court.

Waldman said the withheld documents prove Shen couldn't have committed the crimes of which he is accused. He said one document shows a witness was "repeatedly re-educated and forced to change her story."

Shen claims the Crown violated his charter right to security by withholding information that could exonerate him.

"The plaintiff was in a position where there was a serious risk that he would be deported to China," Shen claims.

"The mental anguish from fear of deportation, torture and imprisonment which the plaintiff has been suffering throughout the refugee hearing was compounded."

The CBSA  and the attorney general have not filed a response and would not comment on the allegations.