China’s man in Canada facing his own legal troubles
Case of Ping-Teng Tan turns a spotlight on one of the first and most prominent allies of the Chinese Communist Party in Canada
Author of the article:Tom Blackwell
Published Jul 02, 2024
When the Chinese government wanted Canada to extradite an allegedly corrupt businessman in 2011, it turned to a Toronto lawyer and erstwhile friend for advice.
Ping-Teng Tan suggested a strategy for “repatriating” Lai Changxing that Beijing followed. “I helped the Chinese government solve a very difficult problem,” he boasted to the state-run Phoenix TV network in a 2015 interview on how China could get other such fugitives out of Canada.
But almost 10 years later, Tan is now battling allegations of financial irregularities himself.
The Law Society of Ontario recently suspended his licence to practise as it investigates allegations that he misappropriated more than $500,000 from a client, money intended as a retirement nest egg.
“We have endured mental anguish for an extended period and would like to promptly recover our funds for the sake of our retirement life,” the client said in his complaint.
Tan, often known as just Ping Tan and aged about 80, consented to his licence suspension, the society says, while the regulator has yet to file actual discipline charges or prove them in a discipline hearing.
Still, as Canada grapples with the threat of foreign interference, the case turns a spotlight on one of the first and most prominent allies of the Chinese Communist Party in this country, one who has stayed close to Beijing for decades.
The Bond Education Group Tan founded trains Chinese officials in Canadian management and government operations, while an employee of the school accused him of firing her for protesting with other members of the Falun Gong, a spiritual group banned by Beijing. He has attended numerous functions at the Chinese consulate in Toronto and met with a succession of visiting Chinese leaders.
He heads a group that promotes “reunification” of Taiwan with China, something most Taiwanese oppose, and co-founded another organization — the National Congress of Chinese Canadians (NCCC) — that a defecting Chinese diplomat alleged was a creation of the embassy.
Tan has praised the 2020 Hong Kong national security law that’s been widely decried for quashing the city’s limited freedoms, defended China’s crackdown on 2008 protests in Tibet and helped set up an exhibit that extolled Beijing’s rule of the territory. He also co-hosted a news conference complaining about a Globe and Mail article that revealed Canadian Security Intelligence Service suspicions around former Ontario cabinet minister Michael Chan’s ties with China. (Chan, now Markham, Ont.’s deputy mayor, denies any improper relationship.)
“I would call (Tan) their number-one proxy,” says Cheuk Kwan of the Toronto Association for Democracy in China. “He was the prime mover from the founding of the NCCC back in ‘92 and ’93.”
Tan could not be reached for comment.
The Law Society started looking at Tan after a client complained earlier this year that the lawyer handled the sale of the person’s small business, received more than $500,000 from the buyer, then never handed it over to the seller, according to law society documents. The client asked for the money repeatedly, as did another lawyer he hired to help recover the cash. Tan never did hand it over, but eventually offered to put up his house as security, a proposal the client refused.
A law society forensic auditor asked for documents dealing with the case but also faced obstacles, he said in an affidavit.
Tan’s actions are “indicative that the funds are no longer being held in trust and have been misappropriated,” said the Law Society in another document. “There is a significant risk of harm to the public.”
The Law Society of Ontario Tribunal decided on June 6 to suspend Tan’s licence. The lawyer earlier informed the regulator that he was retiring and closing his practice.
Tan’s role as a Beijing ally has also waned somewhat in recent years, but few Canadians could rival the duration of his support of China.
He was licensed to practise law in Ontario in 1977, while also becoming a leader in Toronto’s Chinese-Canadian community. Kwan said he first cottoned on to Tan’s ties to China after the creation of the NCCC in 1992. The group has had a lengthy history since of supporting Beijing on controversial issues, but Chen Yonglin, a Chinese diplomat in Australia, went further after he defected in 2005.
Chen charged that the national congress was at the top of the pyramid of Canadian groups actually set up by the Chinese consulates and embassy in Ottawa, purportedly to represent Chinese Canadians, while acting to further Beijing’s interests. The organization came into being three years after the Tiananmen Square massacre made China something of an international pariah. The NCCC has strongly denied it had such a relationship with the PRC.
In its 2015 story on Tan, China’s Phoenix TV quoted the Chinese consul general at the time as saying that all nine of the country’s mission heads in Toronto over the years had been “very familiar” with the lawyer. “He would attend every major event of the Consulate General,” consul Fang Li told the television network.
And in the late 2000s, Tan told Phoenix, the Chinese ambassador consulted him on how Beijing could get businessman Lai Changxing back to China to face corruption charges, given that the countries lacked an extradition treaty.
The lawyer says he told the ambassador China would have to guarantee it would not execute Lai to get Ottawa’s support. It made such a pledge, Canada deported Lai in 2011 and he was eventually sentenced to life in prison.
Tan continued to echo Beijing’s narratives until recent years. He told China Daily in 2020 that it would be a “lose-lose” situation and cause “crippling damage” to Canada-China relations if a Canadian court extradited Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou to the U.S.
In 2022, as chairman of Chinese Canadians for Chinese Reunification, he criticized then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, castigated those on the island who resisted union with the mainland and applauded Beijing’s aggressive military response to the visit.
“China’s military exercises have not only curbed the arrogance of Taiwan independence but also boosted the confidence of overseas Chinese,” he told China Daily.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/chinas-man-in-canada-facing-his-own-legal-troubles
曾帮助中国遣返赖昌星的加拿大知名华社领袖，正在接受调查
2024年07月02日 10:25
来源：加国无忧 51.CA 作者：思忆
近日，加拿大知名华社领袖陈丙丁被临时吊销律师牌照一事，引发了加拿大主流媒体的关注，这是一个商业案件，然而媒体却将焦点放在他作为华社领袖的身份以及与中国的关系上。
图源：PETER J THOMPSON /National Post Staff
《国家邮报》作者Tom Blackwell发文称，陈丙丁是中国在加拿大的首批和最知名的盟友之一，当中国政府在2011年希望加拿大引渡涉嫌腐败的商人赖昌星时，曾求助这位多伦多律师。陈丙丁建议“遣返”赖昌星的一种策略后，北京方面随之采纳。在2015年接受国家电视台凤凰卫视采访时，陈说道：“我帮助中国政府解决了一个非常困难的问题。”
然而，近十年之后，陈丙丁自己正在面临财务违规的指控。
安省律师协会最近暂停了他的执业执照，正在调查他涉嫌挪用客户超过50万元的资金。这笔资金是客户用于退休的储蓄。现年80岁高龄的陈丙丁已同意他的执照被暂停。安省律师协会表示，监管机构尚未提出正式的纪律指控，也未在纪律听证会上证明这些指控。
不过文章作者称，随着加拿大应对外国干涉的威胁，这个案件将焦点集中在陈是中国在加拿大首批也是最知名的盟友之一，他与北京的密切关系长达数十年。
陈于1977年获得在安省执业的律师执照，同时成为多伦多华人社区的领袖。
文章披露，陈丙丁创办的邦德教育集团（Bond Education Group）培训中国官员关于加拿大的管理和政府运作。他多次出席中国驻多伦多总领事馆的活动，并与一系列来访的中国领导人会面。他领导一个推动台湾与中国统一的组织，并共同创办了加拿大全国华人团体联合会。
陈丙丁曾告诉凤凰卫视，加中两国之间没有引渡条约，中国大使曾就如何将商人赖昌星遣返回中国面对腐败指控咨询他。陈丙丁表示，他告诉大使，中国需要保证不会对赖昌星执行死刑，才能获得渥太华的支持。中国做出了这样的承诺，加拿大在2011年将赖昌星遣返回中国，最终他被判处无期徒刑。
文章称，最近几年，陈丙丁仍在重复北京的话。他在2020年告诉《中国日报》，如果加拿大法院将华为高管孟晚舟引渡到美国，将会是“双输”局面，并对中加关系造成“致命损害”。
陈丙丁支持2020年的香港国家安全法。他还共同主持了一场新闻发布会，批评《环球邮报》有关质疑前安省内阁厅长、现任万锦副市长陈国治与中国关系的文章。
2022年，作为中国统一促进会加拿大分会的主席，陈丙丁批评了当时美国众议院议长南希·佩洛西访问台湾，并谴责了岛上那些抵制与大陆统一的人，称赞北京对这次访问的强硬军事回应。他告诉《中国日报》：“中国的军事演习不仅遏制了台独的嚣张气焰，也增强了海外华人的信心。”
文章作者没有联系到陈丙丁进行评论。
根据律师协会的文件，安省律师协会开始调查陈丙丁，是因为今年早些时候有客户投诉称，这位律师处理了该客户小企业的出售交易，收到了买家支付的超过50万元，但从未将这笔钱交给卖家。客户和雇请帮助追回现金的律师多次要求还钱，但陈丙丁始终未归还。最终，他提议以自己的房子作为担保，但被客户拒绝。
律师协会的一位法务审计员要求提供处理该案件的文件，但也遇到了障碍。
安省律师协会在另一份文件中表示，陈丙丁的行为“表明这些资金不再被信托持有，且已被挪用”，“对公众构成重大风险”。
安省律师协会法庭在6月6日决定暂停陈丙丁的执业执照。这位律师此前已通知监管机构，他将退休并关闭其事务所。
来源链接：
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/chinas-man-in-canada-facing-his-own-legal-troubles
https://info.51.ca/articles/1323176?wyacs=ios-share
