Vancouver businesswoman sues for US$200,000 she lost while trying to get money out of China
- Defendants say she was aware of risks in ‘illegal currency smuggling operation’, and her funds may have been taken by ‘unknown third party or government actor’
- The lawsuit and response, whose claims have not been proven, highlight the challenges that Chinese currency control laws pose to those trying to export funds
But the four defendants deny that the funds lost by plaintiff Sarah Wu ended up in their hands after what they said was an attempted “illegal currency smuggling operation” to get money out of China and into Canada.
Instead, they said, the money “appears to have been taken or confiscated by an unknown third party or government actor”.
[The] defendants devised a scheme to bilk funds from ethnically Chinese Canadians, by promising them a means to exchange [funds] out of the [People’s Republic of China]
One of the defendants, businesswoman Weihua Xiao, said in a court filing that she had offered to consult “various middlemen” who could assist Wu with the transaction, and she expected a commission in return.
But Xiao denies any contractual duties to Wu, and says her assistance was only offered on a “best efforts basis”.
Neither the claims in the lawsuit nor those in the response have been proven in court.
But both filings highlight the rules about exporting money from China, which imposes a US$50,000 annual limit on such transactions.
