BURST
When the RCMP raided a Surrey home this spring, they found an estimated $175,000 in stolen goods that included clothing and cosmetics.
In a civil forfeiture suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the province alleges that between November 2024 and March 7, Yawen Zeng and Zeng’s spouse, Jia Dai, possessed the stolen property, held the property to sell it, and sold stolen property.
The province also alleges the pair laundered the proceeds of crime through a mortgaged house in Surrey assessed at $1.158 million, a 2020 Honda Odyssey and with 113 gift cards, including from Coach, Lululemon, Hudson’s Bay, Shoppers Drug Mart, Arc’teryx and Cadillac Fairview.
The RCMP also seized more than $6,700 in cash.
Zeng and Dai have not responded to the allegations, which have not been proven in court.
“The (house), vehicle, money, and gift cards are proceeds and instruments of unlawful activity,” says the civil forfeiture suit filed this month.
“By converting the proceeds of the unlawful activity into the (house), vehicle, money, and gift cards, (the property) . . . was used by the defendants as instruments of unlawful activity, namely, the laundering of proceeds of crime,” says the suit.
The house was purchased by Zeng in 2021, where the couple was last known to reside.
The suit argues that all or some portion of the defendants’ interest in the house, vehicle, money and gift cards is the proceeds of crime.
The couple is also cited for tax evasion.
The suit says that on March 7, 2025 the RCMP used a warrant to search the house in South Surrey in the 2700 block of 158 Street, where they found numerous items of stolen clothing in the garage, shipping materials and gift cards.
On the same day, the RCMP searched the Honda vehicle where they found $1,741 in cash in a pink purse, and a Ziploc bag containing $5,000 in cash in $100 bills that was inside the glove box.
In the car, the police also found gift cards, a score sheet which recorded sales and collection of debts, and 10 Shoppers Drug Mart beauty boutique bags containing clothing, cosmetics and other items.
The cost of the clothing, cosmetics and other items found at the house and in the vehicle is estimated at more than $175,000, according to the forfeiture suit.
Neither Zeng nor Dai has been charged criminally in relation to the alleged thefts, according to a search of online B.C. court records.
Civil forfeiture is tested at a lower threshold than criminal prosecutions, a balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.
In 2022, the B.C. government-commissioned Cullen inquiry into money laundering recommended beefing up the use of civil forfeiture.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Austin Cullen, who headed up the three-year inquiry, recommended that the Civil Forfeiture Office significantly expand its operational capacity by adding investigators and analysts capable of identifying and targeting unlawfully obtained assets and instruments of unlawful activity beyond those identified in police files. Cullen also endorsed the use of so-called unexplained wealth orders.
Critics of civil forfeiture, including the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, argue civil forfeiture grants excessive power to the state and there is insufficient evidence to support its effectiveness in combating money laundering.