Fresh legal trouble for prominent Toronto ally of Beijing

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A Toronto lawyer and long-time ally of the Chinese government who was censured recently for allegedly misappropriating a half-million dollars from a client is facing more legal trouble and accusations of wrongdoing.

A second alleged victim charges in a lawsuit that Ping-Teng Tan failed to hand over $550,000 from the sale of the client’s house, before shutting down his law firm. A third person has accused Tan of “fraud, theft and misappropriation” for allegedly pocketing $216,000 of his money under similar circumstances.

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Meanwhile, two of the ex-clients recently won default court judgments ordering Tan to pay back the money after they received no response to their lawsuits.

“It is clear that Mr. Tan is in breach of contract, breach of trust and breach of fiduciary duty,” Justice Jill Cameron of Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice said in one of the cases. “It appears as though Mr. Tan has been dishonest having likely misappropriated or dealt with the (funds) which were to be held in trust.”

As well, at least one of the clients has complained to York Regional Police about alleged criminal acts.

Det.-Const. Greg Hurst of York’s financial crimes division, who a source familiar with the case indicated was looking into the matter, declined to comment.

“I wouldn’t be able to disclose anything,” said Hurst. “I can’t speak about any investigations that are ongoing.”

A department spokesman said the York force only provides information when criminal charges have been laid.

The three cases have unfolded in court and before a legal regulator over the last several weeks. But it’s not the first time the lawyer has been embroiled in financial controversy.

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Tan was criticized in 2008 for how a non-profit group he headed handled more than $1 million in donations to help victims of a Chinese earthquake, while in 1997 police investigated the disappearance of $1 million from the bank account of a company Tan had run. No findings of wrongdoing were made against him in either case.

Tan, often known as just Ping Tan and aged about 80, could not be reached for comment.

The Law Society of Ontario suspended the lawyer’s licence to practice last month as it investigates a complaint that he failed to pay out $500,000 from the sale of a client’s small business. The client, Xiaolong Zhang, was quoted in Law Society documents as saying the money was meant to be a retirement nest egg and that its disappearance has left him and his wife in “mental anguish.”

A statement of claim from the second victim says Tan was processing the $2.8-million sale of his Toronto-area house last year and was required under Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) rules to withhold 25 per cent of the proceeds until a foreign-ownership tax was paid. The lawyer transferred the tax owed to the CRA, but never turned over the remaining $550,000 to clients Baozhong Zhang (no relation to Xiaolong) and Yi Hong Lin, the statement of claim said.

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The law firm explained its actions with “words to the effect that they had (negligently) allowed their trust account to be overdrawn and were not currently in possession of such funds and required more time,” the statement of claim alleges.

When Tan failed to respond to the lawsuit, a Superior Court judge ordered him to pay his client the money. Xiaolong Zhang and his wife won a similar judgment last month.

The third set of alleged victims, Dezhong Chen and Xiang Jiang, said in a statement of claim filed last month that Tan withheld $216,000 to cover the non-resident tax when they sold their house here, but never paid the $86,000 owed to the CRA or returned the balance to the clients. Chen and Jiang say they have been unable to contact Tan.

Tan told the Law Society he has retired and his practice has been closed.

The cases, meanwhile, have turned a spotlight on one of the first and most fervent backers of the Chinese government in Canada, amid growing focus on foreign interference in Canadian affairs.

“Ping Tan is obviously the CCP’s advocate, the strongest advocate in Canada,” said Gloria Fung of the group Canada-Hong Kong Link, who led lobbying efforts that convinced the federal government to set up a foreign-agent registry. “He has publicly vowed his support for lots of the CCP’s controversial policies.”

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Tan once headed the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, a group that a defecting Chinese diplomat alleged was set up by Beijing’s embassy here. He founded the Bond Education Group, which among other roles trains visiting Chinese officials on Western management skills, and is accused of firing a Bond employee who belonged to the Falun Gong, a spiritual group China has banned.

He has publicly defended a succession of contentious Chinese actions, from suppression of human rights in Tibet to a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong and harassment of Taiwan. He’s been a frequent guest at China’s Toronto consulate, hosted a number of visiting Chinese leaders and boasted that he advised Beijing on how it could convince Canada to return a fugitive businessman to China.

In 2022, he blasted both a leading U.S. politician’s visit to Taiwan and Taiwanese people who oppose “reunification” with the mainland, while praising China’s aggressive military response to the visit.

As head of the NCCC, Tan faced criticism when most of the $1.3 million the group raised for the Sichuan earthquake relief effort had languished in a bank for months after the disaster, articles by Radio Free Asia and Epoch Times reported at the time. He defended the delay at a news conference, saying the unspent money would be given to the Red Cross.

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A decade earlier, York Regional Police investigated the disappearance of $1 million from a bank account of Inter Canadian Development Corp, the Toronto Sun reported then. It described Tan as a director of the company, though an earlier story by Indigenous-run Windspeaker described him as chief executive. Police told the Sun the lawyer had been “very helpful” in their investigation. It’s unclear if charges were ever laid.

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