A former resident of B.C.’s Lower Mainland allegedly fled Canada after posting a $10,000 release bond following his arrest by immigration officials investigating a scam that saw victims send more than $1 million to fraudsters posing as Canada Revenue Agency employees.
Even though he is still believed to be in China, Haoran Charlie Xue, 27, was charged with nine criminal offences last month in connection with a multi-jurisdictional investigation into an organized crime group that began in 2019.
The details of Xue’s disappearance are contained in court documents filed in recent months as part of a parallel, ongoing civil battle over the proceeds of the sale of Xue’s former Burnaby, B.C., home, last assessed at $1.9 million.
B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture wants to keep the money as the proceeds of crime, claiming Xue is the real owner, despite the fact the home was registered to his father.
The RCMP’s Federal and Serious Organized Crime unit announced the charges against Xue last month.
He is accused of defrauding seven victims out of nearly $200,000, although RCMP claim the total number of Canadians taken in the group’s scam was closer to 70 and the amount they lost nearer to $1 million.
According to a copy of the charges obtained by CBC, Xue is also charged with using the stolen identities of five other people in order to commit fraud on behalf of himself and his associates.
And he allegedly posed as a man named David Franklin in order to rent a Richmond UPS box where victims were allegedly told to send their cash, police say.
‘You are just looking to talk to somebody’
One of the alleged victims named in the charges spoke with the CBC.
The Calgary woman — whom the CBC has agreed not to identify — said a man who called himself “Mark” called her in May 2019, claiming to be an officer with RBC in Toronto.
One of the alleged victims of Haoran Xue claims she was vulnerable when a stranger called her and persuaded her she was in trouble with her bank. (graphbottles/Shutterstock)
The 67-year-old said she lives alone.
“Sometimes, I think when you’re very vulnerable, you are just looking to talk to somebody, And when somebody calls, you pick up the phone to answer it, not knowing that you will face a problem with that person,” she said.
“And they are very smart at convincing you, that’s another thing. And there are people like me who get convinced. That’s my downside.”
“Mark” told her to send $15,000, she said. He appeared to know her address, directing her to a nearby UPS location.
The woman said she is now amazed a bank teller let her take out the money.
She also doesn’t understand why it took RCMP so long to complete an investigation into an accused who is now far beyond the reach of Canadian authorities.
No show for September 2019 hearing
According to the civil suit, RCMP began investigating Xue in June 2019 as part of a probe into organized crime groups posing as a software company, a bank and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) employees. It says victims were told to send cash and gift cards to mailboxes in B.C. and Ontario.
Court documents claim Xue transferred $1 million in and out of his bank accounts.
A CBC journalist visits Haoran Xue’s house in 2019 when he was first named in a civil suit related to a CRA scam. No one was home and a heap of mail was piled on the doorstep. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
Investigators tailed him for several weeks and ultimately seized a cellphone that they said contained the names of victims and the addresses to which they were told to send specified amounts of money.
The RCMP arrested and released Xue in 2019. As a result of the fraud investigation, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) also began an immigration investigation.
According to court documents, the CBSA arrested Xue and then released him on a $10,000 bond pending a hearing set for September 2019.
The documents say he fled Canada around Aug. 15, 2019, about the same time his father listed the Burnaby house for sale.
‘A respected contributing member of his community’
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has issued a default order against Xue, who hasn’t filed any response to the director of civil forfeiture’s claims.
But Xue’s father — Zenggang Xue — has retained a B.C. lawyer and filed a response to both the initial claim and a recent application in pursuit of documents from banks, a real estate company and the CBSA.
B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture wants to seize this home, which belongs to Haoran Xue, a man charged as part of an RCMP probe into phone scams. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
Zenggang Xue said he owns a successful propane exchange business in a city 1,000 kilometres west of Beijing and that he paid for his son to come to Canada in 2012 to obtain an education at a private college.
The father said he visited Canada several times and was impressed with “the local quality of life.” He said he decided to use his savings “to accommodate his son while he attended school, generating rental income if possible to offset the mortgage, to possibly retire at this property or simply sell it on the market for profit.”
According to his court filings, Zenggang Xue was spending his summer in B.C., in 2019 when RCMP raided his home while investigating his son. He said he was unaware of the allegations before that.
“Zenggang is a respected contributing member of his community in the City of Yongji, who never engaged in, or condoned anything, that is contrary to law,” Zenggang Xue said, in his response to the civil claim.
“Zenggang and his family earned their living honestly by hard work and by their habit of savings which is the only source of funds in purchasing the house.”
The father noted there is no allegation of wrongdoing on his part and called the application for documents related to the financing of the home “a fishing expedition.”
In May, a judge sided with B.C.’s director of civil forfeiture in ordering the release of the documents in question.
The proceeds of the home will be held by the court until a trial on the merits of the civil claim is complete.
None of the criminal allegations have been proven in court.
Watch: CBC Marketplace investigates the CRA phone scam:
Who’s behind one of the biggest cyber-crime schemes in Canadian history? David Common travels to India to catch the fraudsters. 22:31
EDMONTON – RCMP say a second suspect has been arrested in the killing of an Alberta county worker.
Mounties say 28-year-old Elijah Strawberry was taken into custody Friday at a house on O’Chiese First Nation.
Colin Hough, a worker with Rocky View County, was shot and killed while on the job on a rural road east of Calgary on Aug. 6.
Another man who worked for Fortis Alberta was shot and wounded, and RCMP said the suspects fled in a Rocky View County work truck.
Police later arrested Arthur Wayne Penner, 35, and charged him with first-degree murder and attempted murder, and a warrant was issued for Strawberry’s arrest.
RCMP also said there was a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Strawberry, describing him as armed and dangerous.
Chief Supt. Roberta McKale, told a news conference in Edmonton that officers had received tips and information over the last few weeks.
“I don’t know of many members that when were stopped, fuelling up our vehicles, we weren’t keeping an eye out, looking for him,” she said.
But officers had been investigating other cases when they found Strawberry.
“Our investigators were in O’Chiese First Nation at a residence on another matter and the major crimes unit was there working another file and ended up locating him hiding in the residence,” McKale said.
While an investigation is still underway, RCMP say they’re confident both suspects in the case are in police custody.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
RICHMOND, B.C. – The Integrated Homicide Investigation Team says the 26-year-old son of a man found dead on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast has been charged with his murder.
Police say 58-year-old Henry Doyle was found badly injured on a forest service road in Egmont last September and died of his injuries.
The homicide team took over when the BC Coroners Service said the man’s death was suspicious.
It says in a statement that the BC Prosecution Service has approved one count of first-degree murder against the man’s son, Jackson Doyle.
Police say the accused will remain in custody until at least his next court appearance.
The homicide team says investigators remained committed to solving the case with the help of the community of Egmont, the RCMP on the Sunshine Coast and in Richmond, and the Vancouver Police Department.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, have broken off without an agreement following 15 hours of talks.
Joe McCann, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they stayed at the bargaining table with help from a mediator until 2 a.m. Friday and made “some progress.”
However, he says the union negotiators didn’t get an offer that they could recommend to the membership.
McCann says that in some ways they are close to an agreement, but in other areas they are “miles apart.”
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people who can’t navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last week, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
McCann asks HandyDART users to be “patient,” since they are trying to get not only a fair contract for workers but also a better service for customers.
He says it’s unclear when the talks will resume, but he hopes next week at the latest.
The employer, Transdev, didn’t reply to an interview request before publication.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/763/343/CBC_MARKETPLACE_SEASON_46_S46E01_20973.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
