Victims of two B.C. sisters, who carried out a land development scam in Alberta, are getting around $2 million of lost investment back.
The sisters — Siu Mui “Debbie” Wong and Siu Kon “Bonnie” Soo — had set up a joint venture to buy and develop land in Wheatland, Alberta.
According to court documents, Soo and Wong’s last known addresses are in Richmond and Surrey respectively.
They were found guilty of fraud by a B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) panel in 2016.
They had misappropriated $1.2 million from investors, transferred units of the joint venture to their husbands and adult children at no cost and used mortgage proceeds for purposes unrelated to developing the property.
They were also found to have committed fraud in another project where they inflated the purchase price of a property and lied about it to the investors.
A receiver, MNP Ltd., was appointed by the B.C. Supreme Court in 2019 to recover assets for the investors.
Since then, it has obtained funds from accounts and taken control of and sold the properties frozen by BCSC.
Sale proceeds from the properties belonging to the sisters and their companies make up most of the $2 million being returned to the victims.
Each victim will get a pro-rated share based on the money they lost, minus the fee for the receiver.
Investors wishing to learn about the claims process can visit MNP’s website.
The two companies they set up relating to the project, 1300302 Alberta Inc. and D&E Arctic, along with Wheatland Industrial Park, were also implicated and found, along with the sisters, to have illegally distributed securities by selling shares without a prospectus.
The BCSC imposed $22 million in financial sanctions on the sisters and their companies. The sisters are also permanently banned from trading in securities in B.C.
The sisters, along with 1300302 Alberta Inc. and D&E Arctic, were ordered to repay a total amount of $9,857,850.
Some victims have filed civil claims against the sisters and their companies.
- With files from Emma Crawford
