Liberal MP Geng Tan doing his duty in aiding man accused of fraud: PMO

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The Prime Minister's Office says Liberal MP Geng Tan was merely performing his parliamentary duties when he approached Chinese government officials and Canadian diplomats in Beijing on behalf of a Liberal Party donor who was under investigation for money laundering and the fraudulent sale of securities to Chinese citizens. The donor was charged six months later.

The Globe and Mail reported last week that Mr. Tan acted as an intermediary for Chinese-Canadian businessman Xiao Hua Gong, also known as Edward Gong, who was arrested in late December and charged by the Ontario Securities Commission in connection to a $466-million pyramid scheme.

Read also: Liberal MP Geng Tan acted as intermediary for businessman now accused of fraud

Justin Trudeau's press secretary, Cameron Ahmad, told The Globe on Friday that neither the Prime Minister nor any cabinet minister had given Mr. Tan permission to approach Chinese officials and Canadian diplomats in China on behalf of Mr. Gong.

Mr. Ahmad would not say whether the Prime Minister condones or approves of Mr. Tan's actions, but said the rookie MP was performing his parliamentary duties when he delivered an unsigned letter from Mr. Gong on June 1 to a senior Canadian diplomat and personally spoke to Chinese state officials about the businessman's legal troubles.

Mr. Tan says he was unaware that Mr. Gong was under investigation at the time. In the letter, which the embassy immediately passed onto the RCMP, Mr. Gong denied he was running a pyramid scheme and offered to co-operate with investigators in both countries.

"Parliamentarians are free to act independently, including in choosing meetings and locations to visit," Mr. Ahmad said in an e-mailed statement.

He compared Mr. Tan's actions to Canadian MPs visiting Ukraine.

"When doing so, parliamentarians represent themselves. Only official government delegations represent the government of Canada abroad," he said.

Mr. Gong is not a constituent of Mr. Tan's but he has donated $7,000 to the Liberal Party in recent years and attended one of the Prime Minister's controversial cash-for-access fundraisers at a private home in Toronto in May, 2016.

Former House of Commons law clerk Rob Walsh said he did not consider Mr. Tan's actions to be part of his responsibilities as an MP.

"This doesn't sound like a parliamentary function," Mr. Walsh said. "What is he doing that for? Why does he have to go to China to deliver a letter to the Canadian embassy when he could walk across the street and put it in the post-office box?"

Mr. Walsh said if a cabinet minister acted as an intermediary for a man under investigation for securities fraud and money laundering, "there would be all kinds of demands for accountability."

Mr. Tan told The Globe last week that he "simply transported a piece of correspondence on behalf of a fellow member of the Toronto North York community … and any inference of influence in this matter is simply wrong."

As for meeting with Chinese officials, the MP's office said Mr. Tan "communicated his hope to local officials that due process will be followed."

David Mulroney, a former Canadian ambassador to China, said the Tan case is unusual.

"Canadians don't need the assistance of an MP to approach a Canadian government office or official, at home or abroad. It is not clear what advice or assistance was expected of the embassy, which would be very careful not to intervene in a matter being investigated by the local or Canadian police," he told The Globe on Monday.

"It would be highly unusual to make a pro-active intervention while an investigation was under way, something that could be seen as interference. MPs do occasionally get involved in consular cases abroad, working independently of the embassy. But this only happens rarely, and only after someone is imprisoned, not during an active investigation."

Conservative ethics critic Peter Kent said the opposition considers Mr. Tan's behaviour to be "unacceptable and wrong" and will be raising the issue when the House of Commons resumes sitting on Jan. 29.

Mr. Gong faces a charge of fraud over $5,000, possession of property obtained by crime, laundering proceeds of crime and uttering a forged document. None of the allegations have been proven in court.

An OSC affidavit filed in Toronto court said the investigation of Mr. Gong involved the New Zealand Police and the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and as well as the RCMP and Canada's FINTRAC, a federal agency that tracks the movement of money offshore.

The OSC alleges that at least $190-million obtained from the pyramid operation was directed to Mr. Gong's bank accounts in Canada, which he then used to buy hotels, residential property and luxury cars and a boat. This money was in addition to $63-million in New Zealand accounts that has been frozen by investigators.

Attempts to reach Mr. Gong were unsuccessful and his lawyer Glen Jennings did not respond to requests for comment. In July, Mr. Gong denied any wrongdoing when the allegations were first raised in China's media.