A Beijing consulting company has been fined $400,000 for Canadian immigration fraud.

A Beijing-based immigration firm, Welltrend United Consulting, has been instructed to compensate Lihua Bao, a Canadian lawyer. The judgment resulted from Welltrend United Consulting’s unauthorized use of Lihua Bao’s signature on various Canadian immigration application forms.

Key Points:

Welltrend United Consulting, a Chinese immigration consulting firm, used a Canadian lawyer’s name without consent.
The company was mandated to pay Lihua Bao, a lawyer, $400,000 for forging her signature on Canadian immigration forms.
Bao had a deal with Welltrend but had no agreements for specific provincial programs.
The issue surfaced when Bao was informed of commissions on forms she hadn’t signed.
The court found multiple other immigration applications with Bao’s forged signature.

Identifying Fake Immigration Consultants

Lihua Bao is a lawyer from Ontario who pursued legal action against Welltrend United Consulting, which claims to be China’s leading immigration consulting company, and its Canadian subsidiary, Welltrend Canada Consulting.

The core of the legal dispute revolved around the misuse of her signature on 25 distinct Canadian immigration applications.

Justice Matthew Kirchner of the B.C. Supreme Court highlighted that Welltrend Beijing had been dishonest by falsely reproducing her signature. While Bao’s initial claim was geared toward retrieving all profits, amounting to $1.25 million, from the company’s client application fees, the court viewed this as an overestimation of Bao’s actual loss.

The lawsuit was launched in B.C., even though Bao practices in Ontario and the immigration applications pertained to a Nova Scotia program. The reason for this jurisdictional choice was the location of Welltrend’s Canadian office in B.C.

Beijing and B.C. Canadian Immigration Offices

Justice Matthew Kirchner distinguished the Beijing and B.C. offices of Welltrend. Despite some ownership overlaps, the B.C. establishment was not part of the lawsuit, and consequently, the judge dismissed claims against its stakeholders.

Canada’s shift in immigration policy in the early 2000s necessitated either a Canadian lawyer or a registered consultant to vouch for entry applications. Following this, Bao and Welltrend entered into an $800 monthly agreement.

When discussions of expanding this partnership to include provincial programs began, disagreements over the monthly fee led to no deal being finalized.

Trouble truly began for Bao in 2014 when a Nova Scotia immigration officer informed her about commissions linked to application forms she hadn’t signed. Welltrend’s response attributed this anomaly to internal misunderstandings and denied any forgery.

The relationship further deteriorated when Bao demanded significant compensation from the Beijing immigration consulting company.

Immigration Fraud in Canada

The lawsuit started in 2015 in B.C., and it was later discovered that there were 20 other forms with Bao’s forged signature.

After analyzing the details, Justice Kirchner declined Bao’s demands about fraudulent activities and conspiracy claims.

Justice Matthew Kirchner conceded that Bao should be compensated for contract violations, especially since forging signatures was clearly not part of their initial agreement.

Though Bao’s request for punitive damages was turned down, the judge pointed out that the awarded damages exceeded what Bao might have received had he struck a deal with Welltrend. The judge also highlighted Bao’s questionable practice of pre-signing blank application forms.

While this didn’t justify Welltrend’s forgery, it cast doubts on the true extent of Bao’s harm due to the misuse of his name.

What do you think about the Canadian immigration fraud that the Beijing consulting company committed? Strange news often comes out of China!

Beijing Company Caught In Canadian Immigration Fraud

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