Thread by @scoopercooper

Exclusive: International students and offshore banking flagged in Canadian real estate money laundering | Globalnews.ca globalnews.ca/news/8383731/i… @CullenInquiryBC #cndpoli #bcpoli #vanre

2. Buying a $2.1 million mansion was only one of Zhang’s many multimillion-dollar transactions while attending Coquitlam College. From about 2012 to 2015, Zhang would funnel at least $33.75 million in electronic funds and cash through Canadian and Hong Kong bank accounts.

3. It was one of at least five properties Zhang purchased in B.C., including a mansion in Richmond that Zhang bought for $3.15 million, land titles filed in Federal Court show. And his parents, wanted for an alleged $200-million fraud, bought at least seven properties in Ontario.

4. Student money laundering probe tied directly to key organizer and fundraiser for Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party, Xin Zhou, a prominent 'cash for access' figure in Toronto, is named in significant CBSA and Fintrac suspicious wire $ from Hong Kong files.

https://twitter.com/scoopercooper/status/1463844946524389390?s=20

5. “The funds that Zhang has been involved in receiving and transferring wire transfers is truly astonishing,” an October 2015 forensic accounting report filed in CBSA’s case states. "The currency transactions were larger than one would expect, from an unemployed student."

6. When relations between MixCulture’s directors went sour, one of the directors, Chen Xi, reported to York Regional Police that Wang and Yan had transferred from $40 to $50 million to their son, and Chen alleged the funds involved “fraud and money laundering.”

7. Xin Richard Zhou received at least $2.99-million from the family including $2.99 million in wires from 'student' Guanqun Zhang. Zhou was flagged for millions from various entities from Hong Kong, in a few months. He told his bank auditors he wouldn't explain his relationships

8. to the Hong Kong remitters, except to say in Canada (while claiming $26k per year income) -- “the nature of his business is to provide assistance to overseas students with arranging housing needs and school applications.”

9. It was also of interest to CBSA and Fintrac that Richard Zhou was transferring in the space of about six months, $500k to various law firms. It is clear that lawyers in Canada play a role in this story, but the Fintrac records don't explain why Zhou's transactions to lawyers

10. are especially noteworthy, except to disclose them in the context of payments to lawyers involved in immigration and cross- border litigation, and to place Zhou's business in the context of international students and housing + millions in unexplained transnational wires.

11. Another element of this story that really jumped at me, I've never seen before a case where Fintrac records allege a foreign official, in this case a Dominican embassy official in Ottawa, was caught up in suspected money laundering transactions in Canadian fin systems.

12. There was also many pages on apparent "flow through" bank account transactions via a young woman from a Beijing company living in a Vancouver apartment, including one transaction involving Guangqun Zhang. You can see one flow chart here, another unexplained detail is ...

13. Why is money going from a Vancouver account, and back to a Hong Kong account of a 'risk solutions' firm? And why was about $10k sent to the address listed here, of this Caribbean lawyer, offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/230000092 Fitzroy Eddy. Mr. Eddy didn't respond, nor did the HK firm.

14. Guanqun Zhang, now 28, successfully fought a deportation case based on CBSA accusations that he was involved in money laundering schemes and transnational organized crime.

15. When you look at the CBSA and Fintrac records, they raise plenty of questions about real estate and lawyers, but also Canada's stock market. Guanqun Zhang was a very active daytrader, according to his CBSA investigation notes. In a trade, he bought Valeant @AlderLaneeggs

16. No indication whether Zhang got out of the $168,000 trade before Valeant fully crashed on fraud concerns.

17. That's it for now, I think it is fair to say this story is very relevant to past federal election issues relating to offshore investment and impact on real estate prices. Read the story and scan the docs, as expert @JessMarinDavis tweeted, it is rare to see such detailed docs

PS. The case against Guanqun Zhang is over, according to his Vancouver lawyer. But not for everyone named in Zhang's Federal Court files. After I questioned DR govt about @FINTRAC_Canada records involving an embassy official, the govt said it will investigate the matter.

@FINTRAC_Canada “Mrs. Guzmán Felipe concluded her posting at the Embassy of the Dominican Republic in Canada in July 2018, therefore we will forward your message to the Department of Legal Affairs of our Ministry of Foreign Affairs to open an investigation on this matter.”