Former Mountie targeted B.C. real estate tycoon for China, RCMP allege

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The Mounties say a retired RCMP officer charged this summer with conducting foreign interference on behalf of China was targeting a wealthy Vancouver real estate entrepreneur named Kevin Sun as part of his alleged activities for Beijing.

Confidential law-enforcement information from the RCMP and FBI provided to The Globe and Mail lays out the reasons why William Majcher faces two charges for alleged offences under the Security of Information Act.

The RCMP believe Mr. Majcher used contacts and expertise to help the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) in support of its Operation Fox Hunt and Operation SkyNet projects: efforts cast by Beijing as global anti-corruption campaigns but which Western security agencies have said have also been used to target and silence dissidents.

The RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement team in Montreal alleges that Mr. Majcher collaborated with another former RCMP officer, Kenneth Marsh, to compel Mr. Sun to co-operate with China’s MPS and Public Security Bureau, according to the investigation dubbed Project Severo. The Globe is not identifying the source who provided details of Project Severo because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

Mr. Majcher’s lawyer has denied that his client has done anything illegal, calling the RCMP evidence an “entirely circumstantial case.”

The RCMP also believes that China asked Mr. Majcher, a former RCMP inspector with undercover expertise in organized and financial crimes, to build a dossier on a Uyghur activist.

The RCMP are alleging that Beijing asked Mr. Majcher to obtain information in 2017 on Rebiya Kadeer, the then-U.S.-based president of the World Uyghur Congress; attempted to use his Canadian law-enforcement contacts to help China win the release of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou; and sought to track down a Chinese fugitive living in New York City.

China was seeking to recover some of the approximately $544-million in funds lost to banking fraud that it alleged Mr. Sun, a Chinese citizen and permanent resident of Canada, had a hand in. The fraud was allegedly committed against the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China in Jilin province in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to Project Severo.

China had obtained a global arrest warrant for Mr. Sun known as an Interpol Red Notice in April, 2015. He was apparently on a list of 100 fugitives suspected of economic crimes that China was trying to track down as part of Operation Fox Hunt.

Federal Bureau of Investigation director Christopher Wray and Canadian Security Intelligence Service director David Vigneault have characterized Operation Fox Hunt as a campaign to instill fear, silence dissent and put pressure on political opponents outside China.

In announcing the charges last month against Mr. Majcher, who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for years, the RCMP said he allegedly “used his knowledge and his extensive network of contacts in Canada to obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People’s Republic of China” between January, 2014, and January, 2019.

He has been charged with two counts under the Security of Information Act, including Section 23, which covers “preparatory acts for the benefit of a foreign entity,” and Section 22, which covers conspiracy. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of two years.

According to RCMP information provided to The Globe, Mr. Majcher sent an e-mail to a colleague in which he talked about his intention to get Mr. Sun to co-operate with China, saying he could “guarantee him his [Chinese] passport and no jail time.” He mentioned that Beijing was about to obtain a Red Notice against Mr. Sun and that he could use the global arrest warrant to impress upon Mr. Sun that “we hold the keys to his future.”

What we know about the retired RCMP officer charged with conducting foreign interference for China

On March 30, 2018, an RCMP officer at the Canadian embassy in Beijing reported that China’s Ministry of Public Security cancelled the Red Notice after negotiations with Mr. Sun and provided him with a new passport. In presenting its case for charges, the RCMP said China’s settlement with Mr. Sun match the intended actions of Mr. Majcher.

But Mr. Sun’s Vancouver lawyer undermined the RCMP allegations. James Carpick denied his client negotiated any deal with China. He also said Mr. Sun had never met or had any dealings with Mr. Majcher and is not willing to voluntarily testify at the trial of the former RCMP officer.

“Mr. Sun is not presently under any subpoena to testify in any trial and has no intention to voluntarily appear as a witness in Mr. Majcher’s trial, and has never been interviewed by or given a statement to the RCMP about the matters referred to in your e-mail,” Mr. Carpick said in a statement.

Mr. Carpick said his client paid off his debt to the Chinese bank in 2013 and that Mr. Sun was not a “victim of extortion committed by the Chinese government through its alleged agent, Mr. Majcher.”

Mr. Majcher, 60, was arrested on July 18 when he arrived in Vancouver from Hong Kong. He was carrying a backpack but no electronic devices or luggage, the RCMP say. He was subsequently released because the police felt they had insufficient information to charge him. They then obtained more information and arrested him again two days later.

He was granted bail July 25 on a $50,000 bond after an appearance by video conference from a courthouse in Longueuil, Que., and set to appear on Aug. 29.

In October, 2017, the RCMP say Mr. Majcher mentioned in e-mails to colleagues that he was asked by China to gather information on Ms. Kadeer and the World Uyghur Congress, including schedules of meetings, events and financial status. It is unclear if he did any of the work and he assured one colleague in an e-mail that he would not do anything that would put him “offside” with Canada or the U.S.

The RCMP also allege that Mr. Majcher had been hired by the Chinese government in January, 2019, to seek information from Canadian law-enforcement contacts about the case of Ms. Meng, who had been arrested at Vancouver airport in December, 2018, on a U.S. extradition request. It is unclear from information provided to The Globe whether Mr. Majcher did what the RCMP has alleged.

In August, 2017, the Mounties allege that Mr. Majcher was given the task by China’s Public Security Bureau of Tianjin to locate and offer a “sweetheart deal” to Jianming Sun, a Chinese national living in New York.

Mr. Majcher tried to locate the hospital where Mr. Sun was being treated for pancreatic cancer so he could tell him that a Chinese warrant for his arrest would be waived if he co-operated in answering questions posed by the Public Security Bureau, according to information supplied by the FBI to the RCMP.

It is unclear from Project Severo whether Mr. Majcher ever contacted Jianming Sun.

Mr. Majcher’s lawyer, Ian Donaldson, said his client is “innocent of the charges.”

“He was not hired by any agency to intimidate any person. He has never met Kevin Sun, Rebiya Kadeer, Meng Wanzhou, or Jianming Sun,” Mr. Donaldson said in an e-mail. The theory of this case, to the extent that it can so far be discerned, is misguided and erroneous.”

He added: “Circumstantial evidence increases the risk of drawing a wrong inference and reaching incorrect conclusions.”

Neither Mr. Marsh nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.

Mr. Majcher has acknowledged that he has worked with China to help recover millions of dollars that were allegedly proceeds of crime or taken out of the country illegally.

“As long as the claim is valid and as long as we’re doing everything lawfully and properly, I’m a hired gun to help either large corporates or governments to get back what is rightfully theirs,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) in 2019.

“I have a commercial relationship with entities that are in themselves associated in some form or another with policing authorities in China. And a big part of their mandate is focused on economic crime, financial crime, money laundering,” the former Mountie told ABC.

Mr. Majcher’s arrest follows half a year of national debate and reporting on rising foreign interference in Canada and how to address it. The federal government is negotiating with opposition parties about launching a public inquiry into foreign meddling.