8 sentenced in New Can Consultants immigration fraud case affecting over 1,600 clients
Consultants found guilty of immigration misrepresentation and tax evasion
Three employees and one client associated with New Can Consultants have been sentenced for immigration and tax fraud in B.C., bringing the total number of people sentenced in the largest immigration fraud case in the province to eight.
More than 770 of the company's 1,600 clients have now lost their permanent residency or citizenship status or face inadmissibility hearings according to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
On Sept. 12, CBSA says employee Zheng Wen "Vicky" Ye was sentenced to pay $94,532 in fines and received a conditional sentence of two years less as day.
She pleaded guilty to charges related to passport fraud and misrepresentation over a five-year period when she provided immigration services to 265 clients. She was an unlicensed immigration consultant and had evaded more than $42,000 in income taxes.
In August, Tian "Gary" Chen and Xiao Ben "Ben" Chu, also unlicensed immigration consultants with the company, were handed conditional sentences.
Chen will also have to perform 40 hours of community service for misrepresentation under the Immigration Act and "providing false addresses and phone numbers to clients so they could maintain the appearance of residency in Canada while living outside the country," said CBSA in astatement.
Chu will be under house arrest and curfew and will also have to do 40 hours of community service after counselling clients "to misrepresent facts, namely residency histories on their immigration applications," according to the CBSA.
Xun "Sunny" Wang, the owner of the company, and three of his employees were previously sentenced to jail time after pleading guilty to several charges including passport offences, misrepresentation, forgery and tax evasion.
Wang, who was charged in October 2012, was given seven years in prison and fined $900,000 in one of the biggest immigration scams in Canadian history
Three more employees have warrants out for their arrest.
In July, client Che Fang who wanted to be a permanent resident and pretended to be an employee of the company —receiving paycheques he paid himself and T4s — was issued an exclusion order, according to the CBSA.
An exclusion order prohibits an individual from reapplying to return to Canada for five years.