Don Valley North Liberal MP Geng Tan hand-delivered a letter to a top official at the Canadian embassy in Beijing and personally spoke to Chinese authorities on behalf of a Liberal Party donor, Xiao Hua Gong who has been charged with money laundering and the fraudulent sale of hundreds of millions of dollars in securities to Chinese citizens.
Chinese-Canadian businessman Xiao Hua Gong, also known as Edward Gong, was arrested in Toronto last week and the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has charged him with fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, laundering proceeds of crime and uttering a forged document.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
On June 1, Tan acted as an intermediary for Gong, who at the time was under criminal investigation by the RCMP, Ontario Securities Commission [OSC] and China’s Ministry of Public Security in connection with a $466-million pyramid scheme.
The OSC affidavit that is filed in the court states Liberal MP delivered an unsigned letter from Gong to Cindy Termorshuizen, the deputy head of mission at Canada’s embassy in Beijing.
Termorshuizen turned the letter over to the RCMP liaison officer in China, who forwarded it to investigators in Canada, the document says.
The affidavit said Gong denied in the letter that he was running a pyramid scheme and promised to co-operate with investigators in both countries.
He claimed he was “running a legitimate marketing and sales method called multilevel marketing and direct sales” of health-care products in China.
A former Canadian ambassador to Beijing, David Mulroney, expressed surprise that the Liberal MP would approach the embassy on behalf of Gong, and praised Termorshuizen for giving the letter to the Mounties.
