Civil forfeiture office goes after penthouse owned by woman with suspected gang ties
October 17, 2013. 9:51 pm • Section: News, STAFF
Louise Ching Man Kwok doesn’t have a criminal record, isn’t facing any criminal charges, and isn’t accused of any specific crime, but she still stands to lose her Richmond penthouse apartment if the Civil Forfeiture Office has its way.
That’s because the two-storey suite at 6333 Katsura St. was the scene for a major drug bust in February involving Kwok’s rental tenants, and the province now suspects that organized crime provided her with the funds to buy the place.
Just a little over a month after Kwok, a federal employee, rented the suite to Hoang Nam Lam, police conducted a search and discovered 2.03 kilograms of cocaine, 13.2 kilograms of a known cocaine cutting agent, one gram of heroin, two grams of marijuana and $41,825 in cash. Lam was charged with drug offences; Kwok was not.
Kwok put the apartment up for sale just 23 days after the raid, but after the B.C. Supreme Court granted a interim preservation order this week, she won’t legally be able to sell it. Meanwhile, the CFO can build up its case for forfeiture.
Kwok had argued in court that she didn’t know there was anything illegal happening in the apartment and she hadn’t met Lam before she agreed to rent to him. She also denied that she used gang money to buy the condo.
But Justice Bruce Greyell ruled Wednesday that because Kwok didn’t offer to explain how she got the money for the apartment — purchased for $539,300 in 2008 — the CFO deserved a chance to argue for its forfeiture.
Kwok currently makes an annual income of about $65,000 working as a financial analyst for Service Canada. She scored a $440,000 mortgage to purchase her condo, leaving about $44,300 that she would have had to provide for a deposit.
The VPD’s Organized Crime Unit searched Kwok’s condo after a nine-month investigation into illegal drug storage and processing in properties across the Lower Mainland. Police suspect that Kwok profited from the drug trade going on inside her apartment.
Investigators allege that Kwok is connected to Bryan and Jeremy Pang, brothers who are believed to have links with Asian gangs. She hasn’t yet tried to explain her relationship with the Pangs, according to court documents.
In his decision, Justice Greyell acknowledged that evidence linking Kwok to the Pangs and any other suspected gang associates is based mainly on “opinion evidence and hearsay,” but said police have still raised a “serious question to be tried.”
Listings for Kwok’s two-bedroom, three-bathroom, 1,267-sq-ft apartment can still be viewed online. She had set an asking price of $745,000.
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