{"id":151829,"date":"2020-10-11T22:25:35","date_gmt":"2020-10-12T05:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=151829"},"modified":"2020-10-13T07:44:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-13T14:44:20","slug":"businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese Businessman at Center of Canadian Gambling Investigation Met Twice with PM Trudeau"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Canadian police investigation into an illegal gambling and spa operation took an interesting turn this week. It was learned the main suspect in the investigation had previous meetings with Justin Trudeau, the country\u2019s prime minister.<\/p>\n

\"Canadian
Wei Wei, far left, and other Chinese-Canadian business leaders meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (center) in 2016. Earlier this year, Wei was arrested as part of a major illegal gambling investigation, with law enforcement raiding his suburban Toronto home. (Image: CHNCIA.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The National Post<\/em> reported that Wei Wei met with Trudeau on at least on two occasions four years ago.<\/p>\n

Last month, the York Regional Police in Ontario revealed details about an investigation called \u201cProject End Game.\u201d The nearly three-month investigation about illegal gambling<\/a> dens netted three busts, including Wei\u2019s mansion. Police arrested 32 people in the bust at the CDN $9 million (US $6.9 million) mansion in the Toronto suburb of Markham, including the 52-year-old businessman from China.<\/p>\n

According to the Canadian publication, Wei arrived in Canada about a decade ago as part of the country\u2019s investor-immigrant program. Since then, he\u2019s been busy buying properties in and around the Toronto area.<\/p>\n

Wei Met Trudeau at Photo-Op, Fundraiser<\/h2>\n

Wei\u2019s also been involved in fostering better relations between the two countries. One of the events The Post<\/em> details includes a photo-op the China Cultural Industry Association had with Trudeau. At the time, Wei served as the cochairman of the Canada<\/a> China Chamber of Commerce Association.<\/p>\n

\n

The other event that year that included the Prime Minister was a Liberal Party fundraiser in May where more than 30 prominent Chinese-Canadian business leaders attended. That event at the time led to media reports saying Trudeau violated Canadian campaign ethics regulations, as well as the party\u2019s doctrine, which has rules against attending fundraisers featuring those who have done business or wish to do business with the government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Post, though, noted it could find only three donations from Wei to the Liberal Party, and none of those directly went to Trudeau.<\/p>\n

Canadian Gambling Probe May Also Focus on Human Trafficking<\/h2>\n

The bust at Wei\u2019s house was by far the biggest of those made by police earlier this year, as it led to 32 people being arrested. Others arrested included 48-year-old Xiang Yue Chen, Wei\u2019s wife, and Chen Wei, Wei Wei\u2019s 25-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

Besides gambling laws, the elder Wei also faces 11 charges of unsafe firearm storage, four counts of unauthorized firearm possession, and a charge of selling liquor without a license.<\/p>\n

According to the York police, Wei\u2019s mansion didn\u2019t just serve as a high-end casino. Along with more than CDN $1 million in cash being seized, authorities also confiscated more than $1.5 million in premium liquor.<\/p>\n

The Post also reported that patrons of the casino also apparently had access to bedrooms in the mansion, and police have indicated there may have been some human trafficking going on as well.<\/p>\n

The money moving through these underground casinos leads to huge profits for criminals that fund other ventures, such as prostitution and drug trafficking,\u201d York Police Chief Jim MacSween said in a statement. \u201cThis illegal high-stakes gambling also leads to gun violence, armed robberies, kidnappings, extortion, and other serious violent offenses within our community.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In all, the three busts in \u201cProject End Game\u201d have led to more than CDN $10 million in assets being seized.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Canadian police investigation into an illegal gambling and spa operation took an interesting turn this week. It was learned the main suspect in the investigation had previous meetings with Justin Trudeau, the country\u2019s prime minister. The National Post reported that Wei Wei met with Trudeau on at least on two occasions four years ago. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":151831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBusinessman at Heart of Canadian Gambling Probel Met PM Trudeau<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Post reported the man arrested as part of a Canadian gambling investigation, had previous encounters with the prime minister.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Businessman at Heart of Canadian Gambling Probel Met PM Trudeau\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Post reported the man arrested as part of a Canadian gambling investigation, had previous encounters with the prime minister.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-10-12T05:25:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-10-13T14:44:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wei-wei-trudeau.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Bittenbender\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/\",\"name\":\"Businessman at Heart of Canadian Gambling Probel Met PM Trudeau\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wei-wei-trudeau.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-10-12T05:25:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-10-13T14:44:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/eb30e765d812fc9b38b333f8d13068b2\"},\"description\":\"The National Post reported the man arrested as part of a Canadian gambling investigation, had previous encounters with the prime minister.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/businessman-at-heart-of-canadian-gambling-probel-met-pm-trudeau\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wei-wei-trudeau.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/wei-wei-trudeau.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Wei Wei, far left, and other Chinese-Canadian business leaders meet with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (center) in 2016. 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