Forged signatures in N.S. nominee program cost Chinese immigration outfit $400,000

A Vancouver judge has ordered a Chinese immigration consulting outfit to pay an Ontario lawyer $400,000 for falsifying his signature on 20 applications to a Nova Scotia immigration nominee program.

Lihua Bao took Beijing-based Welltrend United Consulting Inc., its president, his sister, spouse and a Canadian affiliate, to British Columbia Supreme Court after learning from a Nova Scotia immigration official about the applications, which he had not signed.

“I find that Welltrend Beijing breached an implied term of its agreement with Mr. Bao by attaching his name to 25 applications to the Nova Scotia provincial nominee immigration program and forging his signatures on those applications,” Justice F. Matthew Kirchner said in a recent decision.

“I assess the damages to Mr. Bao as being the amount of commissions that the Nova Scotia government paid Welltrend Beijing for these successful applications being $20,000 for each of 20 accepted applications containing Mr. Bao’s name as the authorized immigration representative and for which commissions were paid. I therefore award Mr. Bao damages in the amount of $400,000.”

Needed a Canadian lawyer

Bao testified he started working in April of 2004 for Welltrend for a monthly flat fee of about $800 to help its clients immigrate to Canada.

“Welltrend Beijing is an immigration consulting firm in China but at the material times was not registered as a qualified immigration consultant in Canada. It therefore required a Canadian lawyer to sign off on its clients’ applications to this country,” Kirchner said in his written decision dated Sept. 6.

“It contracted with Mr. Bao to provide those legal services.”

But the agreement was limited to applications made to the Government of Canada, Bao told the court.

“Welltrend Beijing and Mr. Bao discussed another arrangement whereby Mr. Bao would provide the same kind of services for applications submitted through provincial immigration nominee programs but no agreement was reached in this respect,” according to Kirchner’s decision.

Bao has worked as an immigration lawyer since 1996, including a five-year stint in China.

Surprise letters from Nova Scotia 

A decade after he started working for Welltrend, the lawyer got an email, which contained five letters, from John MacDonnell with the Nova Scotia Immigration Office.

“Mr. MacDonnell was the Nova Scotia Nominee Program Economic Stream Claims Administrator,” said Kirchner’s decision. “Each of the five letters from Mr. MacDonnell is identical with the exception that each relates to a different successful applicant under Nova Scotia’s nominee program.”

MacDonell told Bao he hadn’t applied for the $20,000 commission associated with each application.

“Mr. Bao was surprised to receive these letters since he had never acted as a representative for any of Welltrend’s clients applying under the Nova Scotia program,” Kirchner said.

“Nor had he ever heard of any of the five successful applicants named in the letters.”

Company confirms 

When he contacted Welltrend about the applications, the company confirmed the five successful applicants were its clients, according to the judge’s decision.

Bao testified that Welltrend offered him $5,000 to collect the $100,000 in commissions for the Chinese company.

Bao spoke with MacDonnell around January 2015, telling him he didn’t represent any of the five immigrants named in his earlier letter.

“Mr. MacDonnell provided Mr. Bao with copies of the documents submitted on behalf of these individuals which contained Mr. Bao’s name and signature as the representative. Mr. Bao confirmed to Mr. MacDonnell that the signatures were forged.”

That same month, MacDonnell wrote to Welltrend inquiring about the forgeries, noting the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration had identified 36 applications in its files originating with the Beijing outfit or its related companies.

“Further, the Nova Scotia Office of Immigration must seriously consider ceasing to accept any applications from (Welltrend) as it appears the company has misled this office on numerous occasions,” he wrote.

‘Professional and beyond reproach’

The company responded, ensuring “the work it submits on behalf of its clients is ‘professional and beyond reproach’ and, for this reason, they were ‘shocked’ to receive Mr. MacDonnell’s letter,” according to Kirchner’s decision.

By March of 2015, MacDonnell had identified 18 additional cases filed in Nova Scotia by Welltrend where Bao was named as the representative.

“He said Nova Scotia has 34 cases in which Welltrend was involved, 28 of which could have resulted in a payment of a commission. He states three of the 28 cases do not contain Mr. Bao’s name. Thus, 25 of those cases name Mr. Bao as representative.”

‘Never be paid’

The court heard Welltrend charged each client for the Nova Scotia nomination program about $50,000.

“Nova Scotia would have paid a $20,000 commission (either directly or through its agent Cornwallis Financial Corporation) for 23 of those 28 successful applicants. The other five for which no commission was paid were those brought to Mr. Bao’s attention in Mr. MacDonnell’s November 24, 2014 letters,” said the judge.

“Those commissions have not been paid and I expect will never be paid given Welltrend’s falsification of Mr. Bao’s signature.”

Kirchner wasn’t willing to order Welltrend to cough up all the fees it had charged its clients to immigrate to Nova Scotia.

‘A wrong done’

“While I accept that the wrongful use of Mr. Bao’s name and the forging of his signature is a wrong done to Mr. Bao, it is in fact a fraud that was perpetrated on the Government of Nova Scotia and ultimately the Government of Canada by causing those governments to believe that the immigration applications had been submitted by a lawyer licensed to practice law in Canada,” said the judge.

“In all these circumstances, it is my view that compensating Mr. Bao by fully disgorging Welltrend Beijing of the full amount of fees it charged to its clients as well as the commissions it could have received from Nova Scotia for these applications is disproportionate to the harm inflicted on Mr. Bao. I therefore reject his submission that a remedy should be founded upon a full disgorgement of the profits.”

Instead, Kirchner dinged Welltrend for the amount of money Nova Scotia paid the Chinese company for each successful applicant.

“I find that Welltrend Beijing gave up any right to a share of the commission by falsely using Mr. Bao’s name on the application without Mr. Bao’s knowledge or consent.”