Last updated 18:45, February 2 2016
Thursday, February 4, 2016
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
What Canadian immigration knew about the Chinese crime kingpin who’s fighting to keep his residency
What Canadian immigration knew about the Chinese crime kingpin who’s fighting to keep his residency
February 27, 2013
VANCOUVER – Police had alleged that the man fighting to keep his Canadian residency status ordered the murders of three of his Asian gang rivals before coming to Canada, a former Canadian visa officer told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing.
Jean-Paul Delisle told Lai Tong Sang’s hearing Wednesday that several red flag warnings of the man’s organized crime lifestyle came up when he reviewed a file back in the mid-1990s — but the man was still allowed into the country not longer after.
Lai dropped his immigration request in Hong Kong, but made another application in Los Angeles two years later and he and his family were accepted. Seventeen years later the Canada Border Services Agency is asking the board to find them inadmissible.
Delisle testified he would have clearly informed other immigration officials they were dealing with a “major triad head” from China if he had been notified the man made another request to enter Canada.
“Reliable police sources believed that Mr. Lai had personally ordered the murder of his rival triad head in Macau,” said Delisle, explaining what information he would have relayed to Canadian visa officers who processed the application.
“And while this murder attempt was failed, Mr. Lai was also believed … to have personally ordered the murder of two other triad members that were successful.”
Delisle was a visa official for 25 years and based in Hong Kong when he was initially tasked with reviewing the man’s visa application.
He learned from a special unit of the Macau police that Lai was known to be the leader of a major Chinese crime syndicate, the Shui Fung, or Water Room, gang.
The triad was believed to be engaged in activity such as gambling, prostitution, assault and intimidation.
“He would be passing instructions on to his lieutenants, who would be directing the foot soldiers,” he told the hearing. “He would be the one directing all this activity.”
When Lai’s application arrived on his desk, Delisle said he was facing a backlog that gave him time to check into the man’s background with Macau and Hong Kong police, which he did after noticing several red flags.
“These indicators were that he had a low level of education, had been involved in the construction industry and had high net worth,” Delisle said.
But he wouldn’t have made a final decision on whether to grant Lai the visa until interviewing him. Before that happened the man withdrew his application, Delisle explained.
Lai was accepted into Canada through the Los Angeles consulate and moved to Vancouver with his family on Oct. 20, 1996.
The hearing is expected to wrap up on Thursday.
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
The Uyghurs claim to be from Lemuria, the builders of their pyramids,China wants to wipe them out
China cracks down on US$7.6 billion Ezubao Ponzi scheme
China cracks down on US$7.6 billion Ezubao Ponzi scheme
Stringer Shanghai/Reuters
The perpetrators literally buried evidence of their wrongdoing six metres underground.
The faces behind China’s Ezubao Ponzi scheme: Ding Ning, Zhang Min and Yong Lei.
Chinese police have arrested 21 people connected with an online finance company accused of fleecing US$7.6 billion (NZ$11.6 billion) from investors in one of the world's largest-ever Ponzi schemes.
The enormous size of the Ezubao scam, which stole from more than 900,000 investors nationwide, casts a shadow on China's lucrative but largely unregulated online and peer-to-peer lending industry, part of the country's shadow banking system which has seen a growing number cases of fraud come to light.
The perpetrators literally buried evidence of their wrongdoing. State media reports said police had to use heavy earthmoving equipment to recover thousands of account ledgers and documents buried six metres underground, on the outskirts of Hefei, in eastern Anhui province.
While smaller than the infamous Bernie Madoff scandal in dollar terms, Ezubao has affected more people and was able to accumulate its 50 billion yuan (NZ$11.6 billion) in funds in just 18 months of operation.
The company's 34-year-old founder, Ding Ning, reportedly spent more than 1 billion yuan on lavish gifts, including luxury apartments, cars and a 12 million yuan diamond ring for his wife.
"We cleaned out the Louis Vuitton and Hermes stores across the country," another company executive said in a televised confession aired on state broadcaster CCTV.
Investor fraud has spiked in China over recent years, with low interest rates on savings accounts, a cooling housing market and a volatile stockmarket leaving many looking for alternatives to park their cash. Capital outflows from China were an estimated US$700 billion last year, with wealthy investors seeking to make investments in safe havens like Australia and the United States as China's economy slows.
Ezubao promised annual returns of between 9 per cent and 14.6 per cent. Like other peer-to-peer platforms, it promised higher rates by matching individual investors with other people who needed cash for an investment or business.
But Ezubao was a "complete Ponzi scheme", authorities said. More than 95 per cent of investment products it advertised were fake, with new cash simply used to make interest payments to existing clients.
Already criticised for its management of the economy, stockmarket and its currency, the Chinese government has been under pressure to crackdown on a number of high-profile financial scandals, some which have sparked significant public protests.
Police opened an investigation into Ezubao in December and froze their assets, prompting demonstrations across a number of cities from investors unable to withdraw their funds.
Chinese investors lost some US$23 billion to financial scams last year, including US$6 billion caught up in the collapsed Fanya Metals Exchange which promised zero risk and an annual return of 13 per cent on investments made based on its online rare metals trading platform.
Monday, February 1, 2016
Role reversal? China’s F-Pacific expands manufacturing, headquarters in Vancouver
Role reversal? China’s F-Pacific
expands manufacturing,
headquarters in Vancouver
From left, Minister of State for Seniors Alice Wong, China Fiber Optic Network System Group chairman Zhao Bing, China's consul general in Vancouver Liu Fei and F-Pacific CEO Bei Nie | Photo: Tyler Orton
It’s not uncommon for a North American company to export its manufacturing to China.
But what about a Chinese company exporting its manufacturing to North America — and in Vancouver of all places?
China’s F-Pacific Optical Communications announced Friday (May 1) it’s opening a new regional headquarters in downtown Vancouver and opening a manufacturing facility in Surrey, where it plans to hire 200 people.
F-Pacific, which is a subsidiary of China Fiber Optic Network System Group (CFONSG), also opened a facility in Richmond last year that produces zirconia ferrule blanks. Although the ferrule blanks are produced in B.C., they are shipped back to China to be installed in the company’s fibre optic cables for faster Internet speeds.
But F-Pacific CEO Bei Nie, who is leading the North America operations, said through a translator the company will eventually partner with Canadian telecom firms to install the ferrule blanks in fibre optic systems in the domestic market.
She estimated its sales revenue would reach $100 million by the end of 2015 while exports from Canada to China should amount to $10 million.
“This will (serve) as a bridge for Canada-China trade,” Bei’s translator told reporters in Vancouver.
Despite Canada’s higher labour costs, F-Pacific said it set up a 23-person manufacturing operation in Richmond last year due to cheaper electricity, air quality more suitable for manufacturing ferrule blanks and stronger intellectual property (IP) legislation.
CFONSG chairman Zao Bing, who appeared at the announcement, said through a translator the IP protection was needed to stop other businesses from copying the technology since F-Pacific is the only company in North America capable of producing the ferrule blanks.
Political tension between China and Japan also played a part in expanding the production operations in North America.
The raw materials needed to produce the ferrule blanks come from Japan. Canada enjoys a more stable relationship with both Japan and China than the historic rivals share with each other, meaning shipments of the raw materials are unlikely to be interrupted.
Liu Fei, China’s consul general in Vancouver, said companies from China often look to the U.S. to open North American headquarters but the B.C. government made a strong business case for F-Pacific to set up on the West Coast.
“I’d like to see more Chinese companies coming here and I’m going to support this effort,” she told reporters.
HQ Vancouver — a joint initiative between Ottawa, Victoria and the Business Council of B.C. (BCBC) aimed at luring Asian companies to Vancouver — worked with CFONSG to bring F-Pacific’s new regional office to the West Coast.
This marks the first time since HQ Vancouver’s creation in February that the organization has drawn a company from Asia to Vancouver.
Conservative MP for Richmond Alice Wong, Minister of State for Seniors, said at the announcement that F-Pacific’s decision to move to Vancouver reflects the strengths of the HQ Vancouver initiative.
Over the next three years, Victoria is contributing $3.4 million to HQ Vancouver, while Ottawa is contributing $1.9 million and the BCBC is providing $1.2 million in funding and in-kind support.
Murder accused 'can't remember' ordering male prostitute as he fled to China because he was drunk
Murder accused 'can't remember' ordering male prostitute as he fled to China because he was drunk
Newly released video has revealed the movements of the high-achieving son accused of killing his mother and fleeing to China.
The night before his mother’s death Wei Li calmly filled up the family Mercedes at two Adelaide service stations.
He admits hours later he strangled his mum after she ‘went berserk’ and tried to kill him with a metal rod for skipping piano practice.
The 23-year-old then spent the night in the house with her lifeless body and took photos of the home before driving off.
- Son who killed mother says she went 'berserk' when he skipped piano practice
- Mother-daughter murder case adjourned
But the car broke down.
Li was then spotted at Adelaide and Melbourne airports before he checked into an apartment.
He stayed for two days, even ordering a male prostitute.
Phone logs show his father called him 120 times.
Wei Li didn’t answer despite telling the court he was heading for China to see his dad.
The prosecutor accused Li of lying as he claimed he couldn’t recall anything after his mother’s death because he was blind drunk for days.
But then Li admitted he’d had a bottle and a half of spirits over three days and conceded he didn’t look drunk on camera.
Wei Li took selfies after his mother died and claimed he had sustained similar injuries to his mother’s 57 blows, but could not explain why they were not visible in the photos.
CEO of Chinese company Ezubao arrested in massive probe of Ponzi-style fraud
CEO of Chinese company Ezubao arrested in massive probe of Ponzi-style fraud
Police arrested the maverick founder of China's largest online finance business on suspicion of fleecing 900,000 investors of $7.6 billion, in what could be the biggest financial fraud in Chinese history.
State media outlets reported the arrest of Ding Ning and 20 of his employees late Sunday. State broadcaster CCTV aired purported confessions from two former employees at Ezubao, an Anhui Province outfit that rose from obscurity to become China's largest online financing platform in the span of about 18 months.
Ezubao was the most spectacular player in a booming online investment industry that Chinese authorities have been struggling to regulate. Firms ranging from established Internet companies such as Alibaba to virtually unknown upstarts have flooded into the business, promising higher returns than those at state-run banks, which often offer interest rates below inflation.
Ponzi scheme alleged
Ezubao promised investors that borrowers would pay back loans at interest rates between 9 per cent and 14.6 per cent, but 95 per cent of those borrowers were fictional entities created by Ezubao, a former company executive told investigators.
Behind the firm's rise was 34-year old Ding Ning, an Anhui native who dropped out of school at 17 to work at his mother's hardware factory, where he first gained experience running online sales, according to media reports.
With no technical or financial training, Ding launched Ezubao in July 2014 and opened multiple marketing offices across China. The venture bought expensive ad spots that aired just before the widely viewed nightly CCTV newscast, the state broadcaster's flagship program.
Ezubao appeared to gain Beijing's imprimatur when the gov.cn government website published an interview with Ding in July discussing his life as an entrepreneur. The interview has since been removed from the site.
State media took a far different tone on Sunday as CCTV aired Ding's confession and footage of officials hauling away bags of cash from his home. The Xinhua news agency detailed Ding's extravagant lifestyle and the gifts he lavished on a business partner Zhang Min, including a $20 million villa in Singapore and a $1.8 million pink diamond ring.
"The truth is that it's a fraud ... it's a typical Ponzi scheme," Zhang, the associate, said in her aired confession.
Despite the vast sums cited in the case, Ezubao, which also went by Ezubo on its website, represented just a sliver of China's shadow banking industry estimated to be worth $1.5 trillion as of the end of June, according to Chinese banking regulators.
Independent economists and party officials alike have warned about the danger of unchecked private lending and the political spillover of a large-scale collapse.
After police shut down Ezubao in December, scores of protesters gathered outside a Beijing government building to demand their money back. Simmering anger on social media also spurred public security officials to phone Internet users to warn them against criticizing the Communist Party online.
One investor from Northeast China who lost close to $80,000 told The Associated Press in December that police confiscated her computer and cell phone after she posted online that she might file a petition with the central government.
Fu Weigang, a researcher at the Shanghai Institute for Finance and Law, said difficulty obtaining financing in a state-dominated banking system has for decades driven Chinese citizens into underground borrowing and lending, which also gave rise to countless Ponzi schemes.
But Ezubao was able to take advantage of an influx of mom-and-pop investors in recent years using an Internet model, Fu said, effectively pushing small-scale scams to a countrywide level.
"What they were doing was nothing new in China," Fu said. "But how they were doing it online, and the scale, was unprecedented."
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