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Ghost Immigrants: Paying for Canadian citizenship - The Fifth Estate - YouTube
Channel: The Fifth Estate
[0]
[ ♪♪ ]
[2]
-[ Frèdèric ] Edmonton.
[4]
Every year, Alberta's
capital welcomes thousands
[7]
of immigrants.
[10]
But in 2010, an ordinary
home caught the attention
[14]
of citizenship and
immigration officers.
[17]
This residence seemed to be
attracting a suspiciously high
[21]
number of Chinese immigrants.
[24]
Officers found that
during an eight-month period,
[27]
over 40 newly arrived
Chinese immigrants had
[30]
reported living here.
[33]
Officers detected a similar
pattern in other residences
[37]
in Calgary, Edmonton,
and Richmond, B.C.
[40]
A lot of the addresses were
repeating over and over again,
[43]
to you know 10, 20, 30, even up
to 114 different people residing
[48]
at particular residences.
[50]
So, which is obviously odd.
[51]
There was one address in Calgary
that was used over 60 different
[54]
times and so the, the officers
at immigration, refugee,
[60]
and citizenship Canada
referred the case on to
[62]
CBSA for further investigation.
[66]
-[ Frèdèric ] Officers had
only uncovered the tip of
[68]
the iceberg.
[69]
Hundreds more would eventually
be caught in the largest
[73]
immigration fraud
in Canadian history.
[77]
When examined at the
Vancouver airport,
[79]
one of these immigrants
admitted he spent only
[82]
ten days in Calgary.
[84]
He said he stayed with a friend
but could not recall his name.
[90]
Another immigrant, whose
address on file was in Edmonton,
[93]
admitted to officers she
had never lived in Alberta.
[96]
She didn't even recognize
the name of the province.
[102]
Investigators soon realized all
these immigrants had something
[105]
in common.
[107]
They were clients of a Vancouver
immigration consultant,
[110]
Xun Wang, nicknamed Sunny Wang.
[113]
[ ♪♪ ]
[115]
Originally from China, Wang
moved to Vancouver where he
[119]
founded in 2001 New Can, an
immigration consultancy firm.
[124]
He had many employees.
[126]
It was run like a
high-volume consultancy.
[129]
They had offices in
downtown Vancouver,
[132]
they had offices in Richmond,
they had offices in China.
[138]
-[ Frèdèric ] At first,
Wang registered with the
[140]
Canadian society of
immigration consultants,
[143]
the professional
regulatory body at the time.
[146]
But in 2006, he let his
membership lapse and became
[150]
what's commonly known
as a ghost consultant.
[154]
He also wasn't licensed to
do any of this stuff anyway,
[157]
so he wasn't authorized to
be an immigration consultant,
[160]
never mind an immigration
consultant committing
[163]
the frauds.
[165]
-[ Frèdèric ] Ghost
consultant Sunny Wang
[167]
didn't operate in the shadows.
[169]
He openly advertised in
Vancouver's Chinese language
[172]
media to immigrants who didn't
really want to live in Canada.
[177]
Most immigration fraud typically
you'd think is about people
[180]
sneaking into the country but
what you've got here with wealth
[183]
migration, is people
actually sneaking out of Canada.
[187]
-[ Frèdèric ] Ian Young is
the Vancouver correspondent
[190]
for the South China
Morning Post,
[192]
a Hong Kong based daily.
[194]
There's this Chinese
term "yiminjian",
[197]
what "yiminjian" is,
is "immigration jail".
[200]
This concept is very,
very well known,
[203]
because you've got a lot of
people who are here in Canada
[207]
who really don't necessarily
want to be at least not in
[209]
the short term.
[210]
You know, you've got jobs
and families and businesses,
[213]
you know, back in China to run.
[216]
-[ Frèdèric ] The fraudulent
addresses provided by Sunny Wang
[219]
created the illusion his clients
where living in Canada when they
[223]
were actually in China.
[225]
But stamps in their Chinese
passport left evidence of their
[228]
long absences
from Canadian soil.
[232]
The passports were sent off to
one of Mr Wang's businesses in
[235]
China and fraudulent stamps were
entered into those passports.
[241]
Those are fraudulent
entry and exit stamps.
[243]
So, in the example here, the
stamp on the left shows an
[249]
arrival date into
China of January 3rd,
[253]
and on the right, you have it
altered with the 01 is changed
[256]
to 05, which means the
entry date is now May 3rd.
[259]
So that would be an
example of where,
[260]
instead of being
away from Canada,
[262]
it would appear that
they were inside Canada.
[266]
-[ Frèdèric ] Several of
Wang's clients were living
[268]
in China when the time
came to renew their
[270]
Canadian permanent
resident card.
[273]
In many cases, these clients
were required to pick up their
[277]
new card in person in Canada.
[280]
Wang had planned every detail.
[284]
The clients flew
from China to Seattle,
[287]
in Washington state.
[289]
They entered Canada at the peace
arch crossing because passports
[292]
are seldom stamped
at land borders.
[296]
They flew from Vancouver to
Edmonton or Calgary where
[299]
Wang's accomplices picked
them up at the airport.
[303]
The clients were driven around
the neighbourhood they
[305]
claimed to live in, so they
could answer questions
[307]
by immigration officials.
[309]
It included things like the
schools that the children were
[313]
attending, the description of
their neighborhood and
[317]
a general sense of what it meant
to be Canadian as well.
[322]
So very extensive consulting
and counseling that occurred.
[326]
-[ Frédéric ] Wang told some
clients they didn't even
[330]
need to understand
the questions asked
[332]
by immigration officials.
[334]
They could say anything
they wanted in Chinese.
[337]
It didn't matter because the
right answers would be
[340]
provided in translation by
the accomplice.
[343]
For other clients, Wang offered
an elaborate fake job scheme
[348]
with bogus Canadian companies.
[352]
That's exactly what Chinese
millionaire Xiao Qing Li did to
[355]
maintain her permanent
residency while living in China.
[360]
Well, Xiao Qing Li was given
this fabricated job
[364]
with New Can.
[366]
She never actually did any work
for them but in the process
[369]
of that, she gets pays slips
and what have you that
[371]
make her eligible for the
working poor tax benefit.
[376]
And she claims that.
[379]
-[ Frédéric ] For years, the
whole operation ran smoothly.
[383]
Wang was making a
fortune, raking in over
[386]
10 million dollars in total.
[388]
I mean, the scale and the
brazenness of the operation
[391]
I think was probably the most
surprising to those of us
[394]
in the industry, as how
openly it was being done,
[396]
how many people were involved.
[399]
They were operating in a way
that either didn't care
[403]
or weren't concerned
of being caught.
[406]
-[ Frédéric ] But Wang's
employees became worried
[409]
when they noticed authorities
zeroing in on them.
[414]
In June 2011, one employee
warned him that immigration
[418]
officials had discovered
fraudulent Calgary phone
[421]
numbers linked to 29 clients.
[424]
Wang seemed more concerned
about losing business
[427]
than getting caught.
[429]
"This is the incident with
the biggest loss,"
[432]
he wrote in response.
[433]
"All exploded at once, basically
have to abandon all the
[437]
addresses and phones
currently being used.
[440]
Have to rearrange everything.
[442]
Probably will sacrifice
quite a few clients."
[448]
By the summer of 2012, CBSA
was tracking Wang's every move,
[452]
collecting evidence to
obtain a search warrant.
[458]
Then, on October 17, 2012,
the agency pounced.
[463]
A team of investigators executed
search warrants at Wang's
[467]
offices and residence.
[471]
-We seized over 90
different bankers boxes,
[474]
18 different computers, that
had 12 terabytes
[477]
of information on them.
[479]
So, a tremendous amount of
evidence that had to
[481]
be looked into, analysed and
matched together.
[488]
-[ Frédéric ] Investigators knew
they had caught a big fish,
[490]
but the seized material revealed
just how massive
[493]
his operation was.
[496]
-We ended up quickly finding
things like client lists,
[499]
et cetera, so we were able to
tell right away that
[501]
he had hundreds and
hundreds of clients.
[504]
-We also came across,
hundreds of passports.
[506]
Those passports, upon analysis,
showed that they had
[509]
fraudulent entry and exit
stamps within them.
[515]
-[ Frédéric ] Later on,
investigators obtained
[517]
18,000 New Can emails
written in Chinese.
[521]
The team had to translate and
analyse the large amount of
[525]
files, a massive undertaking
that took nearly two years.
[531]
Then, in October 2014,
CBSA officers went back,
[536]
but this time, to arrest Wang.
[540]
-That day, when we arrived,
I would say he was
[542]
literally caught red-handed.
[544]
He came to the front counter
to meet our officers
[546]
and he was holding copies of
altered passports
[549]
and a passport application.
[551]
So, literally we caught him
continuing the activities that
[554]
we suspected him of
doing back in October 2012.
[559]
-[ Frédéric ] Ultimately, Wang
pleaded guilty to 15 charges of
[562]
fraud and tax evasion and was
fined more than $900,000.
[567]
He was sentenced to
seven years in prison.
[571]
It was a very significant
sentence and one of the longest
[575]
that we've ever seen in Canada
for an immigration fraud scheme.
[580]
-[ Frédéric ] When we come back,
we go looking for Sunny Wang.
[585]
Mr. Wang, we just want to
ask you questions
[587]
about the New Can case.
[588]
[ ♪♪ ]
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[ ♪♪ ]
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-[ Frédéric ] After catching
Sunny Wang in Vancouver,
[596]
the mastermind behind the
largest immigration fraud
[599]
in Canadian history, the
Canada Border Services Agency
[602]
set its sight on his clients.
[606]
-We identified over
1,600 individuals.
[609]
We've investigated each
one to see if there is an
[612]
inadmissibility like, did they
misrepresent themselves
[615]
to the Canadian
government officials?
[619]
-[ Frédéric ] New Can clients
are regularly appearing before
[621]
the immigration and refugee
board in Vancouver.
[625]
Removal orders have
been issued against them.
[629]
-Do you solemnly affirm that
the testimony to be given by
[631]
you today shall be the truth,
the whole truth
[633]
and nothing but the truth?
[635]
-[ Frédéric ] Normally, cameras
are not allowed here.
[637]
To obtain access, we agreed to
blur the image of the
[640]
CBSA lawyer and not to reveal
the client's identity.
[645]
We will call her Ms Bing.
[657]
-[ Frédéric ] Ms Bing hopes that
board member Craig Constantino
[660]
will grant her clemency on
compassionate grounds.
[673]
-[ Frédéric ] In 2009, Ms Bing
applied to become
[676]
a Canadian citizen,
even though she wasn't eligible
[679]
because she hadn't lived in
Canada for three years.
[682]
So she paid Sunny Wang $9,000 to
help her get around the rules.
[688]
She submitted a citizenship
application form prepared by
[693]
Wang stating she had lived
in Calgary for two
[696]
and a half years.
[697]
In reality, she had stayed only
two months in Alberta
[700]
before returning to China.
[704]
-Before you signed the
documents, did you look
[705]
over the complete forms?
[713]
-[ Frédéric ] She says Wang told
her to lie to immigration
[715]
officials if she
was ever questioned about
[717]
her absences from Canada.
[720]
-Why did you feel you had
to follow what he told you?
[738]
-You thought perhaps you
might be able to get away
[740]
with lying to immigration?
[744]
-[ Frédéric ] In May 2011,
she and her daughter went
[748]
to the Vancouver
citizenship offices, expecting
[750]
to attend their
citizenship ceremony.
[753]
But instead, she was questioned
by officers about suspicious
[757]
stamps in her Chinese passport.
[760]
Did they ask you questions
about the false stamps?
[765]
Did you tell the truth?
[768]
Do you remember how long
you told the officer
[770]
you had lived in Calgary?
[776]
So your daughter spoke to
these officers and told the Visa
[779]
officers that she went to
school in Calgary for 2 years.
[781]
Who told her to say that?
[785]
You got your daughter to
be untruthful to CIC?
[797]
-[ Frédéric ] Ms Bing did ask
Wang to withdraw her citizenship
[800]
application and to
give her money back.
[803]
Ms Bing's lawyer,
Peter Larlee, says she's
[806]
a victim of the fraudster.
[808]
I would submit that every client
of Sunny Wang was a victim.
[815]
-[ Frédéric ] The immigration
and refugee board
[816]
didn't find sufficient
compassionate grounds
[819]
in support of Ms Bing's appeal.
[821]
In his decision, board member
Constantino says
[824]
she "was not a naive and
innocent victim
[826]
but a willing participant."
[829]
"her only regret," he says,
"is getting caught
[831]
and the resulting
repercussions."
[833]
Her appeal is dismissed.
[836]
So far, nearly 1,100 of sunny
Wang's clients face removal
[841]
from Canada or have
already left the country.
[846]
Wang is a big catch for the
Canada Border and Services
[849]
Agency but more unregistered
consultants are still operating
[853]
under the radar both
in Canada and abroad.
[858]
CBSA takes great pains to
investigate and recommend for
[862]
prosecution any cases that are
similar in nature or involve any
[866]
kind of border related crime.
[868]
They are not going after the
small fraudulent transactions
[874]
that are done in immigration,
they are just
[876]
looking at big fish.
[879]
-[ Frédéric ] Dory Jade heads
CAPIC, the association
[882]
representing immigration
consultants.
[885]
Less than four or five cases
were brought to court
[887]
in the last few years.
[890]
The number of investigations
opened is in
[894]
the range of 150,
I think it's 148.
[897]
So, there is not enough
resources to go
[901]
after those people.
[904]
-[ Frédéric ] There is a
regulatory body overseeing
[906]
immigration consultants in
Canada but it can only
[910]
take action against
its own members,
[912]
those that are
duly registered.
[914]
Jade believes Ottawa should
grant that council powers
[918]
to also go after those
that are not registered.
[926]
We learn that Sunny Wang has
been released on parole
[928]
after serving two
years in prison.
[931]
So we stop at his residence
to see if he's home.
[935]
Nobody's there.
[937]
But the next time we
show up, an SUV pulls out.
[941]
Mr Wang, I'm Frédéric Zalac
from Radio-Canada television.
[944]
We'd like to ask you a few
questions about New Can.
[951]
-[ Frédéric ] Shortly after as
we were shooting images
[954]
of his house from the
street, Wang comes back
[956]
and calls the RCMP to complain.
[960]
He hands us his cell phone with
a puzzled police officer
[964]
at the other end.
[966]
Do you know who Mr Wang is?
[968]
He was sentenced to seven years
in jail for immigration fraud.
[974]
One of the biggest immigration
fraud in the history of Canada.
[979]
A story on him, yes.
[981]
-[ Frédéric ] The officer sees
no reason to intervene
[983]
as we were filming from
a public street.
[986]
Okay, thank you, I understand.
Thank you very much.
[994]
Mr Wang, we just want to ask
you questions about
[995]
the New Can case.
[997]
I don't want to.
[1000]
Those people are facing
deportation because
[1002]
of what you did.
[1003]
You need to book an
appointment with
[1005]
my parole officer
and the lawyer.
[1006]
I'm not sure I can
answer your question now.
[1007]
-When we've got a guy like Sunny
Wang who can set up a business
[1011]
whose very model was to satisfy
people breaking these rules,
[1017]
then you know
you've got a problem.
[1019]
He made over 10 million dollars
as a result of this scheme,
[1022]
had thousands of
clients, you know.
[1024]
The lesson is that there's
a big problem
[1026]
with millionaire migration.
[1029]
[ ♪♪ ]
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