BURST
A woman who owns a Salt Spring Island home that the province alleges was bought with money from a US$165-million, pump-and-dump stock fraud has agreed not to fight a demand to provide information on the source of the money.
As part of a civil forfeiture suit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, the province had applied for a so-called unexplained wealth order that, if approved by the court, puts a reverse onus on a defendant to explain where money came from to buy assets in cases where there is a suspicion of criminal activity or corruption.
Instead of fighting the unexplained wealth order, Alicia Valerie Davenport has entered into a consent agreement in B.C. Supreme Court to provide the information or records on the acquisition and maintenance of the Salt Spring Island home, now valued at $1.639 million by the province’s property assessor.
Davenport, and her former spouse, Geordie Lee, also known as Skye Lee, have denied the province’s allegations , which haven’t been proven in court.
Davenport, who was listed as a homemaker on the house purchase, says the money was provided to her as part of a divorce settlement.
The Salt Spring Island property was bought outright for $1 million, with no mortgage, on Nov. 3, 2017, according to B.C. property records.
As part of the consent order, Davenport has also agreed to provide the location of original documents and information on records not in her custody or control.
She was given until mid-December, 2025, to provide the information.
The Public Safety and Solicitor General Ministry said Friday that because the matter was before the courts, it wouldn’t say whether the information has been provided. Ministry officials noted that information provided in response to unexplained wealth orders isn’t filed in court and therefore doesn’t become public.
Unexplained wealth orders are part of a package of new laws introduced by the B.C. NDP government in 2023 to combat money laundering and other financial crimes. The province has filed four unexplained wealth orders, including the one against Davenport.
The courts have ruled in favour of the province in two other wealth orders, one in a case related to millions of dollars sitting in a lawyer’s trust account in Vancouver and another involving $7 million in property and cash linked to an alleged illegal cannabis operation.
In the Davenport case, court filings show she had argued the unexplained wealth order wasn’t necessary and the civil forfeiture director could obtain the same information under the regular discovery process.
However, the filings show that last year Davenport agreed to enter into the consent agreement to resolve the unexplained wealth order application.
“In agreeing to do so, counsel for Ms. Davenport explained that although the application is unnecessary, my client has no interest in wasting time and expense arguing over the issue,” said a court response from Davenport.
The province alleges the money came from an international stock fraud through four wire transfers from a shell company named in the pump-and-dump scheme. In pump-and-dump schemes, the secret owners of stocks hype them to raise the price and then sell out to unsuspecting investors.
Several people have pleaded guilty in the stock fraud, including Roger Knox, a British citizen, who was sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay US$10.9 million in restitution. Knox helped others hide their ownership of stocks in the scheme and funnelled money back to them.
According to the province’s forfeiture suit, between Oct. 30, 2017, and Nov. 2, 2017, $1.15 million was transferred to West Vancouver firm Biancardi Law Corp. for a “purported” loan to Geordie Lee.
The forfeiture suit says instructions were provided to Knox to wire the money to Biancardi Law Corp.
A day after the money transfers completed, Alicia Valerie Lee, Geordie’s then-recently separated spouse who later went back to her maiden name, Davenport, paid $1 million in cash to buy the Salt Spring Island home at 435 Stewart Rd. The property transfer was completed by Simon Biancardi of Biancardi Law.
Davenport denies the money for the purchase in 2017 came from any unlawful activity.
Davenport’s court response adds that if the property was purchased with the money from unlawful activity, she relies on a section of the province’s Civil Forfeiture Act that allows the courts to provide relief if a forfeiture of property isn’t in the interests of justice. According to Davenport’s filing in court, the basis for that relief is that she didn’t directly or indirectly acquire the property on Salt Spring Island because of alleged unlawful activity committed by her, and she didn’t know, and couldn’t reasonably have known at the time, that the property was allegedly bought with proceeds of unlawful activity.
Biancardi was later censured by the B.C. Law Society for the Salt Spring Island property transaction and several other dealings with clients.
Under a December 2023 agreement with the Law Society, Biancardi admitted professional misconduct, consented to a six-month suspension and agreed not to receive or handle trust funds, and not to open or operate a trust account. He has also agreed not to practise law in the area of real estate.