VANCOUVER — A B.C. company owner and a Chinese-incorporated mortgage holder are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit where the province wants forfeited $9.5 million in property in Metro Vancouver it says is owned by alleged money launderer Paul King Jin.
The province launched a civil forfeiture suit earlier this year alleging that Jin was the true, or beneficial owner, of 14 properties in Vancouver and West Vancouver.
The suit filed by the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office in B.C. Supreme Court, alleges the properties are the proceeds of crime and have been used to launder money.
It was the fourth such forfeiture suit against Jin in three years, although he has never been criminally charged with money laundering.
Civil forfeiture suits have a lower threshold than criminal proceedings, tested on a balance of probabilities rather than beyond reasonable doubt.
Jin has not personally responded to the forfeiture claim, but his niece, Yuanyuan Jia, who is the director of two companies holding the properties, has responded in court, stating there was no wrongdoing, and the properties were purchased and maintained with “entirely legitimate funds.”
The mortgage holder, Everwell Knight Ltd., incorporated in China with a Hong Kong address, has also denied any wrongdoing in a court response.
Both Jia and Everwell say the forfeiture claim should be dismissed because it was improperly filed, and the court does not have proper jurisdiction over the matter.
“The Court cannot condone this type of action, particularly when it is done by a quasi-governmental agency. The only appropriate remedy is to dismiss the claim against the applicant,” said Everwell in its application this month to have the suit dismissed.
In its response, the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office said the suit has been properly filed and it has jurisdiction.
The civil forfeiture claim is targeted at 12 apartments at 3506 West 4th Ave, an adjacent apartment at 3504 West 4th and a commercial office at 2420 Haywood Ave. in West Vancouver. The 2022 value of the properties is nearly $9.5 million, according to B.C. Assessment Authority records.
The properties are owned by B.C. companies YSHJ Investment Holding Ltd. and JYSH Investment Ltd., whose sole director is Jia, Jin’s niece.
The civil forfeiture claim says the two companies “acted as nominee owners or owners of convenience on behalf of P. Jin” and he is the true owner of the properties.
Everwell holds mortgages on the properties, which were registered at the same time the properties were bought.
The forfeiture claim alleges Jin is the “true owner and directing mind of Everwell” and the mortgages are not legitimate.
The lawsuit lays out similar allegations contained in the three previous civil forfeiture cases in which Jin has filed statements of defence denying the government’s claims. Those suits target some other properties and cash seized from Jin’s house and car.
The forfeiture claim notes that despite being banned from B.C. casinos in 2012, Jin and his associates were involved in 140 casino transactions totalling $23.5 million between 2012 and 2015.
Yet he and his spouse “reported combined income to the Canada Revenue Agency in amounts ranging from $22,372 to $81,000″ between 2011 and 2014,” the lawsuit notes.
The forfeiture claim also says that after Jin was banned from B.C. casinos, he started illegal gaming houses that had a net profit of more than $32 million in four months in 2015.
Jin is alleged to have laundered tens of millions of criminal proceeds through Silver International, an underground bank that was the subject of the RCMP’s ill-fated E-Pirate money laundering investigation. The only charges laid in the case against Jin’s associates Jian Jun Zhu and Caixuan Qin were stayed in late 2018.
Jin was arrested in May 2017 as part of a second money laundering probe dubbed E-Nationalize by the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. The B.C. Prosecution Service has yet to decide whether charges will be laid in that case.
— With files from Kim Bolan
