无照男子涉欺诈： 称有高层关系 忽悠中国客户移民

一名中国女商人赖雅萍(Yaping Lai，译音)，听信别人在加拿大移民部高层“有人”，能够办快速移民，在支付了20万元之后，才发现对方根本没牌照。由于男子拒绝还钱，女商人入禀卑诗最高法院，向代办男子提出民事诉讼，追讨所损失的金钱。

　　以为能走捷径

　　赖雅萍她在2010年秋天在中国参加西安交通大学高级管理人员工商管理硕士(EMBA)课程时认识一名陈姓女子。陈在2011年时知道赖想与家人移民加拿大，陈表示知道有人可以帮助赖申请移民，并让赖和丈夫在西安的喜来登酒店(Sheraton Hotel)与郭姓男子见面。

　　2013年时陈与赖又在西安见面，这时陈告诉赖说她已成功移民加拿大，又说可以介绍帮她申请移民的人士，陈还说这人有加速移民的特别管道。这时，赖并不知道陈欲介绍的人是她之前已见过的郭姓男子。

　　之后郭要求赖和家人到加拿大见他，以便着手准备赖的移民申请。赖于2014年2月来到大温，并在陈的家住两周。陈不久即安排赖和郭在一间据称是P公司所在的办公室与郭会面，郭强调他有合适资格可协助赖取得移民身分。

　　郭还出示了多张与官员的合照，以证明自己所言不假。按照郭的说法，由于他在高层“有人”，所以可以提供一种特别快速、而且合法的移民方法，在3至6个月内即能成功申请下来。不过，这种方法只对一些特别挑选过、在加拿大作出大额财务投资的申请人有效。

　　被骗20万加元

　　郭还说，他是当地一家医疗器材公司(Perceptronix Medical Inc)的幕后老板，可以帮助赖雅萍投资。该公司最初是卑诗癌症局(BC Cancer Agency)的一部分，拥有一种医疗器材的专利，该器材可从病人的唾液分析癌症，而他当初花了2000万元才买下了公司的股份。

　　赖雅萍听信的郭的说法，双方在2014年2月签署申请省推荐移民的合约。按照合约，赖需在一周内向郭某支付20万元，等收到BC省推荐移民计划(BCPNP)的提名信、郭帮她申请工作签证后再缴10万元。等到赖雅萍登陆加拿大，郭再代她申请永久居民，那时再缴7万元。当赖取得永久居民后，再支付5万元。

　　除了签署申请移民合约，赖雅萍还被要求以每股一元的价格，购买上述公司的股票，并转在郭的名下，以“满足快速移民申请条件”。

　　在向郭支付了112.6万元人民币(相当于20万加元)后，赖雅萍在一名朋友的提醒下，察觉到郭某的说法中有漏洞，并怀疑所谓的“快速移民方法”根本不存在。

　　于是赖雅萍与郭在中国见面，并追讨已支付20万元。可是郭不愿还钱，说他已将钱付给特定的加拿大官员。

　　追讨无果，赖雅萍便以“诈骗”为由将郭、郭所声称拥有股份的医疗器材公司、郭自称代理的投资公司，以及帮她同郭牵线的“朋友”统统告上法庭，要求赔偿。

　　与讼人郭在向法庭提交的答辩状中否认他个人与原诉人签有任何合约，他指未诈骗原诉人，也未做过原诉人指他曾作出的陈述。郭否认有任何错误行为，而原诉人如果蒙受损失，也是原诉人的错误造成，不是因为他才引起。

　　赖对郭等人的指控，或是郭的答辩，均未正式成为呈堂证供。

　　省府提醒移民代办不等同保证通过

　　负责卑诗省推荐移民计划(BCPNP)的省工作、旅游及技术紃练厅提醒申请人，在申请移民时必须留意委托代办的人是否有加拿大移民顾问监管委员会(Immigration Consultants of Canada Regulatory Council)发给牌照;此外，即使聘请顾问，也无人能保证一定能够成功申请。

　　该厅发言人Jeidi Zilkie说，任何人自己也可申请移民，就算聘请顾问代办申请，也不会特别受到移民部门关照，不能保证申请案一定会通过。

　　她表示，移民部规定，移民顾问必须取得加拿大移民顾问监管委员会的牌照才能提供服务。

　　有关聘请的个人是否有牌照，可以上移民部网站查询。

Cancer agency spinoff faces fraud allegations
Perceptronix Medical Inc. named in court action filed by Chinese businesswoman
By Darryl Greer | Aug. 30, 2016, midnight

A would-be Chinese immigrant businesswoman is suing a troubled BC Cancer Agency spinoff company after a board member allegedly defrauded her out of more than $200,000 by promising to help fast-track her immigration application under the Provincial Nominee Program.

In two lawsuits filed a year apart, plaintiff Yaping Lai claims in BC Supreme Court that Kuen Yu “Joseph” Kwok, a self-described “prominent businessman and a director of several notable companies, including Perceptronix Medical Inc.” defrauded her out of more than $200,000 in connection with her bid to immigrate to Canada.

Perceptronix was spun off from the BC Cancer Agency in 1999 to commercialize automated cancer-screening technology. Lai claims she lives and works in China and speaks no English. She claims she signed two deals with Kwok in February 2014, one worth $420,000 for Kwok handling her immigration application, and another worth $1 million for shares in Perceptronix.

According to the lawsuit, Kwok told her the share purchase “was a requirement for the immigration application, to allow the plaintiff to qualify as an investor” under the Provincial Nominee Program.

Lai claims Kwok touted a “close relationship with a senior Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) officer which allowed him to have exceptional success in obtaining immigration approval for his clients … without requiring the submission of the complex documents and procedures that other immigration applicants must submit.”

Lai claims she paid an instalment of about $200,000 to a Chinese bank account owned by Kwok in March 2014, and was “pressured” to pay the share purchase price because of an “immigration quota” that was about to “disappear.”

“The plaintiff became suspicious, and investigated with a friend who had resided in Canada for several years. Through this friend, the plaintiff learned that the Statements and the Quota Statement were all untrue,” the claim states.

Kwok allegedly refused to return the money and cancel the agreements because “the money was already paid to the senior CIC immigration officer and he could not get it back.”

Zachary Ng, Lai’s lawyer, told Business in Vancouver via email that “Ms. Lai is currently pursuing legal remedies against Joseph Kwok and others. We have no plans to settle at this time,” but would not elaborate or agree to an interview.

Kwok, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment, denies defrauding Lai, claiming in his legal response that the only agreement was for shares in Perceptronix, which she allegedly failed to pay for in full.

Kwok’s biography has been scrubbed from Perceptronix’s website, and the company’s chairman, former premier Mike Harcourt, told BIV back in April that he didn’t know why the bio was removed, but that he and the company knew about the lawsuit.

“I’m aware of the lawsuit, but it’s a personal lawsuit against Joseph,” Harcourt said in phone interview, adding that it was too early on in the process to comment.

The former lawyer said the company was getting ready to commercialize and introduce its technology, though it hadn’t put out a press release on its website since 2012.

“I haven’t looked at the website because we haven’t had the funds to maintain it for four years, and we haven’t had a need to,” Harcourt said. (Sometime after the interview, Perceptronix posted several backdated press releases from 2015 and 2016, though cached snapshots of the page show they were posted well after their listed dates.)

The company was not listed as a defendant in Lai’s original lawsuit, but is listed in an August 2 notice of civil claim, along with Kwok’s other vehicle, Tincy Investments Inc. Perceptronix has not filed a response to the lawsuit, and its website has been taken down.

Harcourt said he wouldn’t pass judgment on personal litigation against a member of his company’s board.

“A private lawsuit between Ms. Lai and Joseph, which has not even seen discovery yet, which has not even been to court yet, is simply that, a started lawsuit,” he said. “I’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Harcourt said he was appointed about four years ago after the death of the company’s founders, philanthropist Milton Wong and venture capitalist Donald Rix.

“We’re going to carry on with the development of this fine company, started by Milton Wong and Don Rix and a number of other prominent British Columbians, whose families asked me to help the company after the two of them died of cancer,” he said. “Until this lawsuit gets to a point where there is a decision, I’m focused on my obligation to the families that asked me to help this company through to become a commercial success. So that’s my focus.”

Dr. Simon Sutcliffe, a former Perceptronix board member and former head of the BC Cancer Agency, left the company in 2009. He told BIV in a phone interview that Perceptronix faced many challenges up until he cut ties.

“The challenge always for Perceptronix was whether the technology was actually at the forefront of where the field was and was going to be,” he said, adding that financing and the commercial viability of the company’s “automated quantitative cytology” technology was questionable.

He cut ties with the company in 2009 when he felt his role becoming “irrelevant.”

“Essentially the company wasn’t really going anywhere,” he said. “My role to such companies really is I give useful advice around the science, the technology and the implications for future health care, and it was becoming increasingly less relevant to have me as part of those discussions.”

Perceptronix has also had a revolving door of leadership, and is no stranger to litigation.

The company’s former CEO, Dr. Bojana Turic, obtained a default judgment against Perceptronix in April 2015 for unpaid pension entitlements of more than $187,000. Turic declined to comment for this story.

Kwok, who has donated more than $17,000 to the BC Liberals since 2014 and holds an engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, is also facing multiple lawsuits connected to the bankruptcy of Viceroy Homes. Kwok accompanied the B.C. government’s trade mission to Guangzhou province last November for Viceroy, but a spokesman, who initially refused to confirm Kwok’s participation, stated in an email that Kwok made his own travel arrangements.

For Sutcliffe, the recent sale of Celator Pharmaceuticals to Ireland’s Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $1.5 billion showed that “there were clearly good models” for cancer agency spinoffs, noting that Celator was the first to do so. He doesn’t know when the company moved from its original offices on Broadway to its current address inside the Cambie Street Surgery Centre, and much time has passed since he was involved.

“It would’ve been hoped that Perceptronix would’ve been that kind of model,” he said, adding that the office move “does raise questions as to what the business model is now. Clearly, a lot of water’s gone under the bridge since I left the ship.”