a day ago
Bullet holes and police raids: Former real estate agent investigated for allegedly subletting to criminals
A former Lower Mainland real estate agent is under investigation by B.C.'s real estate regulator after his name allegedly turned up last year as the 'tenant' for multiple properties linked to a major Vancouver Police Department (VPD) gang investigation.
According to documents obtained by CBC News, VPD investigators contacted the B.C. Financial Services Authority (BCFSA) when Qun (Michael) Li's name surfaced during raids on Vancouver and Burnaby suites linked to a Quebec-based criminal group trying to establish a foothold in Vancouver.
A search warrant claims the Burnaby resident — who also works as a driving coach — was also listed as the tenant on record in a separate RCMP investigation related to a suite where the actual occupant allegedly fired a stray bullet fired through a neighbour's wall.
And at least five homeowners have turned to the courts to evict Li from their properties in the past year — including two landlords who complained their suites were rented without their knowledge to sex workers.
"I feel stressed every time I think about his issues," says Richard Zhou, an apartment owner who got a B.C. Supreme Court order to remove Li's possessions from his Burnaby condo last year after taking him to the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB).
"I'm helpless. The police cannot help me. The strata manager cannot help me. I think the landlord in Canada is on the weak side. We don't have too much power to kick the tenants out," said Zhou.
'A possible co-opted realtor'
Li told CBC News in a brief phone call he was "not interested" in commenting on the allegations spelled out in a warrant to search his phone obtained in March.
The document says the 45-year-old — who was first licensed in July 2015 — is suspected of breaching B.C.'s Real Estate Services Act by bringing the real estate industry into disrepute and failing to report his rental management property services.
He has not been charged with any criminal offences or any offences under the Real Estate Services Act.
The BCFSA's investigation began with an email from the VPD's organized crime section last August.
"I have been made aware of a possible co-opted realtor whose name has popped up in a large drug trafficking investigation involving an organized gang originating out of Quebec but has quickly established themselves here in the Lower Mainland," the email said.
The court documents say police provided two further emails "which identified six specific properties related to either VPD or Burnaby Royal Canadian Mounted Police related drug investigations."
"Qun Li was listed as the tenant on record at each of the six properties at the time of the police search warrant executions for the investigations."
Vancouver police publicized raids last year on the rental properties in Burnaby and Vancouver as part of an investigation into Zone 43 — a Quebec-based gang accused of drug trafficking in the Downtown Eastside.
Five men were arrested after a 14-month investigation and seizures yielding $150,000 cash, two handguns and 24 kilograms of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine.
The BCFSA search warrant claims "a well known organized crime figure and drug trafficker was living" in one of the suites. Another was allegedly being used to stash drugs.
The court documents claim the actual owners of the suites either believed Li would be living in their units or that he would act as a real estate agent to rent them out.
The owner of a property in Burnaby where VPD allegedly found firearms, currency and evidence of drug trafficking claimed Li "lied to him about living with his cousin" after responding to an advertisement on a Chinese website.
The search warrant says five men ended up living in the unit instead.
A silver bullet fragment 'underneath his bed'
The subject of a Burnaby RCMP file linked to another of Li's rentals was in provincial court in Vancouver this week, making an appearance from his new home: North Fraser Pretrial Centre.
Jordy Engelo faces charges — including careless use or storage of a firearm — in connection with an RCMP investigation into a report of suspicious circumstances, made by the tenant of a neighbouring suite who noticed bullet holes in his unit's walls.
CBC News has obtained a copy of a separate search warrant connected with that investigation, which claims the neighbour "woke up, went to the living room and located a hole in the wall."
"Upon further investigation [the neighbour] discovered that the keyboard of his computer had some impact damage (4 keys), and the bedroom wall had been penetrated through," the search warrant says.
"[He] inspected the bedroom and later located a silver bullet fragment, on the floor, underneath his bed."
Police detained Engelo, who was allegedly found in the company of a 17-year-old female, who was released into the custody of her legal guardian. Engelo's bail hearing is scheduled for next week.
Real estate agent Weny Wu told CBC News she rented the suite after seeing Li's business card.
"He signed an agreement and he said he wanted to move in with his nephew, who's coming to Vancouver," Wu said.
"Later, when something happened — the police incident happened to this unit — we finally realized that he did not actually live there by himself. He let it to other people."
'I decided to sell'
Apart from the files involving police activity, five separate homeowners have taken Li to the RTB in the past year — resulting in decisions against him that landlords have enforced through B.C. Supreme Court orders.
Like many of the people who rented to Li, Zhou claimed he advertised his suite on a Chinese language social media site. He said he did not give Li permission to rent the unit to someone else.
The BCFSA's search warrant says Zhou told investigators Li "immediately sublet the suite to a prostitute for the first month."
Another of the homeowners who went to the courts, Pedro Chie, told CBC News a sex worker also appeared to be entertaining clients out of the Whalley condo Li rented from him in Surrey, B.C.
Chie said he suspected as much after being called multiple times to fix a washing machine that wasn't actually broken and finding evidence a female smoker was living in his suite — not the former real estate agent.
According to an RTB decision, Li fought Chie, arguing that he "told the Landlord at the start of the agreement that they would have friends staying in the rental unit."
But the RTB sided with Chie after Li admitted he was "living elsewhere on a periodic basis" — leading to the conclusion the unit was being sublet contrary to the rental agreement.
"I decided to sell the apartment," Chie says.
"All is messy. I have to pay money to clean up everything."
Zhou says the whole experience has also cost him dearly both emotionally and financially — leaving him with $2,400 worth of fines levied by the strata after a constant string of complaints.
He says he now prefers to rent to non-Canadians, because "they want to behave better."
'I am sorry'
An internet search of Li's phone number turns up old advertisements for apartment rentals on Chinese websites and a posting on a John Howard Society affordable housing list from 2016 for a shared space.
According to the BCFSA search warrant, Li surrendered his real estate licence within days of being contacted by the regulator in early March.
"I am sorry I did not [report] my rental apartments to my manager, as the apartment is under my personal name," Li allegedly wrote in an email to the BCFSA's investigator.
"I am willing to return and suspend my realtor licence to BCFSA from today. I suffered lots of stress recently and in the last few years, because some people I subleased did not pay rent or caused damages or other problem."
The BCFSA confirmed in an email that its investigation into Li's activities is still ongoing.
The regulator says that under the terms of B.C.'s Real Estate Services Act, former licensees can still be sanctioned for activities that took place while they were in good standing.
The search warrant also includes a copy of Li's apology to his managing broker, who wrote a statement explaining that the company's real estate agents work on "an independent contractor basis."
