Beijing eager to get hands on detained fugitive
Chinese banker wanted in $150-million fraud held in Vancouver
PETTI FONG
From Wednesday’s Globe and Mail
VANCOUVER — A senior bank manager who sparked an international mystery when he disappeared from China after allegedly embezzling $150-million has turned up in Vancouver, where he was quietly arrested last weekend by immigration officials.
Gao Shan fled China in 2005, and Chinese authorities until recently have remained mum about his location.
The silence was broken last month after Beijing asked Ottawa to arrest and deport the fugitive bank manager.
But until now, no one knew where Mr. Gao was living and how he managed to remain under the radar of both Canadian and Chinese officials, who have looked for him in the United Kingdom, the United States and South Korea.
Gao Shan fled China in 2005 after allegedly embezzling $150-million. Wednesday, he was taken into a detention hearing in Vancouver after being arrested on the weekend. (Lyle Stafford for The Globe and Mail)
But at a detention hearing in Vancouver yesterday where a solemn Mr. Gao attended wearing an orange shirt and red prison pants, statements from the RCMP indicate that he had been under surveillance for at least a year.
Also taken into custody from their North Vancouver home on Feb. 18 were Mr. Gao’s wife, Li Xue, and their 17-year-old daughter, Gao Shanxuellan Lily. Both were released, but Mr. Gao remains in detention.
Immigration adjudicator Marc Tessler oversaw a detention hearing yesterday in Vancouver to determine whether Mr. Gao is a flight risk or a risk to the public if he is released.
Alannah Hatch, the hearing officer representing the government, said Mr. Gao may flee if released.
“He does not wish to go back to China,” said Ms. Hatch at the detention hearing. “The minister’s view is [that] what they’re living on is the proceeds of crime. The bond is just the price of freedom or the price of not having to go to China.”
Mr. Gao was arrested last weekend because of a warrant that indicated he misstated his occupation when he entered Canada.
He arrived in 2005 to join his wife and daughter who were already living here as permanent residents.
Mr. Gao’s arrest and the beginning of his process through the citizenship and immigration bureaucracy is certain to anger Chinese officials, who last month asked Ottawa to arrest and deport the fugitive. But at that time it was not known where Mr. Gao was living or how China knew that he was in Canada.
Ms. Hatch said that although Mr. Gao had known about the warrant for his arrest, he did not voluntarily return to China to face the charges against him.
Mr. Gao’s immigration adviser, Alex Ning, said given the lack of transparency in the Chinese judicial system, it’s not surprising that the fugitive did not return.
“He’s not the kingpin. He’s one of the guys implicated. For him to go back to China, he would not have a good chance to have a fair trial. The chance of being found guilty is 90 per cent,” Mr. Ning said. “From that perspective, we can understand why he’s in no hurry to go back to China.”
Mr. Ning said his client isn’t worried about Canadian authorities but about Chinese officials who he claims have been known to use whatever means necessary to repatriate people they want.
Despite the large amount of money allegedly linked to Mr. Gao — $150-million according to Chinese officials and $83-million according to figures supplied by the RCMP in documents — the immigration adjudicator heard of a modest family living a modest life in North Vancouver.
In her testimony yesterday, Ms. Li said her husband does not work and the family survives on the $33,000 a year she makes as a child-care worker.
Through an interpreter, Ms. Li, who spoke Mandarin, testified she had not known he was suspected of embezzling money from the Bank of China until two months ago.
The couple has about $11,000 in a bank account and Ms. Li arrived in Canada with about $65,000.
