Bob Mackin
An immigration consultant found guilty of securities fraud endorsed the Trudeau Liberal candidate in Richmond Centre.
Paul Oei (left) and Justin Trudeau in 2015 (Facebook/Richmond Board of Trade)
Paul Se Hui Oei’s name appears on the official list of electors consenting to the candidacy for Wilson Miao. The real estate agent with Macdonald Realty Westmar and media marketer is challenging Conservative incumbent Alice Wong.
Miao has not responded to email and phone messages seeking comment.
In 2018, the B.C. Securities Commission ordered Oei to pay $5 million in fines and disgorge $3.1 million in ill-gotten gains.
Investors gave Oei-controlled companies $13.3 million for an organic recycling plant. But Oei spent funds instead on his Bentley luxury car, legal fees, advertising, donations to political parties and beauty pageants.
The Canada Elections Act requires candidates collect at least 100 signatures of electors from the riding in which they intend to run. Oei and his wife Loretta Lai are both on the form Miao filed with the Elections Canada returning officer for Richmond Centre.
Richmond Centre Liberal candidate Wilson Miao (Facebook)
Oei was a frequent donor to the BC Liberals and federal Liberals before the BCSC tribunal found he committed securities fraud between 2009 and 2013.
Elections Canada’s database shows Oei made $3,965 in donations to the Liberals in 2015, including $620 to the Orleans, Que. Liberal riding association, which backed retired Lt. Gen. Andrew Leslie’s successful run for office.
In B.C., which did not have provincial donation limits until 2017, Oei gave almost $56,000 to the BC Liberals between 2011 and 2015.
Oei sponsored a 2015 Richmond Board of Trade banquet featuring Justin Trudeau and sat beside him at the head table. Oei’s lawyer was Joe Peschisolido, the Steveston-Richmond East Liberal MP defeated in 2019 by Conservative Kenny Chiu. An investor seeking compensation named Oei and Peschisolido as defendants in a B.C. Supreme Court lawsuit.
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