Bob Mackin
The B.C. government and B.C. Lottery Corporation (BCLC) have been added as defendants to a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit by a former Richmond immigration and real estate lawyer who worked in the Chinese government.
In July 2016, Hong Guo sued her firm’s ex-employees Jeff Zixin Li and Danica Qian Pan. Guo said they “conspired to misappropriate” more than $6.6 million from her trust account at CIBC and opened accounts with Gateway Casino between February and April 2016.
Guo claimed the Richmond RCMP never properly investigated her complaint. So she worked with Chinese authorities to investigate Li and Pan. In early 2024, she released Chinese court documents that said Li and Pan were sentenced to jail terms of 13 and 15 years, respectively.
Richmond lawyer Hong Guo announced her run for Mayor of Richmond last June.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Chan said in a May 1 ruling that it is “just and convenient” to add the Province and BCLC as defendants to the existing action. Guo has shown there is a claim for unjust enrichment against the Province and BCLC “that is not frivolous.”
“BCLC has already provided document disclosure,” Chan said. “It is unlikely the Province will have many relevant documents to disclose. No party has conducted any examinations for discovery. Joining the proposed defendants now would not add further delay. Trial dates have been set for June 2027.”
Chan also ordered Guo and Guo Law Corp. to post $150,000 as security for costs within 30 days. If not, the defendants can apply for dismissal of the action.
“I acknowledge the delay is extensive and the explanation offered by the plaintiffs is not completely satisfactory,” Chan wrote. “However, I do not find the delay was strategic. I do not find the plaintiffs intentionally delayed. The evidence on this application shows the delay was likely caused by Ms. Guo’s difficult personal and professional circumstances over the last 10 years and a lack of attention to the action.”
Law Society intervention
Guo originally came to Canada from China in 1993 and studied law at the University of Windsor. She returned to China, worked in the State Council in China’s Communist Party government and was called to the B.C. bar in 2009.
Guo built a busy law firm in Richmond, where she decided in 2018 to run for mayor. She finished fourth.
Prior to election day, she denied that China had committed human rights abuses against Uyghur Muslims and journalists, among others.
After several years of disciplinary proceedings, the Law Society of B.C. (LSBC) decided in 2023 that Guo was “ungovernable” and could no longer practice law because of a “lengthy, serious and highly aggravating” record of professional misconduct, including breach of trust accounting rules, conflict of interest, misrepresentations, misappropriation and mishandling of trust funds and breach of LSBC orders.
Chan adjourned applications from CIBC, BMO and Gateway Casinos to stay the action due to Guo’s contempt proceeding.
Gateway Casinos’ Starlight Casino in Queensborough. (Starlight)
Guo’s return
Guo left for China in October 2023 and her son told a judge that her mental health was suffering.
In May 2024, Justice Gordon Weatherill issued an arrest warrant after she repeatedly failed to comply with disclosure orders.
Chan’s ruling said that order was set aside. Guo was allowed to give her passport to her lawyer when she arrived at Vancouver International Airport. Shen then appeared in front of Weatherill on Dec. 15, 2025. His 40-day sentence was stayed for a year.
“However,” Chan wrote, “the court noted that it was not making a finding that the contempt was purged. Her counsel advises this court that he plans to go before [Justice] Weatherill to ask what more Ms. Guo needs to do to purge her contempt.”
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