Victims of a land development scheme in Alberta will finally get some financial reprieve.
A total of $2.1 million will soon be distributed to 92 investors defrauded by Siu Kon "Bonnie" Soo from Richmond and Siu Mui "Debbie" Wong from Surrey.
According to the B.C. Securities Commission's (BCSC) media statement on Thursday, the B.C. Supreme Court approved on June 26 that MNP Ltd., the court-appointed receiver, distribute the funds on a pro-rated basis to investors who submitted a claim.
The BCSC invited victims to submit claims last year after MNP sold properties belonging to the sisters and their companies. The receiver will be discharged from its duties once the funds have been distributed, according to the BCSC.
According to MNP's fourth report to the court filed June 12, the total of admitted claims added up to more than $12.5 million and victims will recover about 17 per cent of their reported net losses.
MNP noted in the report that, based on the BCSC's findings of liability and court documents for seven proceedings involving the case, investors lost about $33 million collectively.
Wong and Soo, who are sisters, were found by a BCSC panel in 2016 to have committed fraud in their joint venture to develop land in Wheatland, Alta.
Their fraudulent conduct included misappropriating $1.2 million from investors, giving the property units to their husbands and adult children, inflating the purchase price of a property and lying to investors, as well as using mortgage proceeds for purposes other than developing the property.
They were slapped with $22 million in financial sanctions and permanently banned from various market activities.
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