Toronto Star targets Winners

In June 2007, Winners caught the attention of investigative reporters at the Toronto Star.

According to the story, an employee of Niu spoke with a Toronto Star reporter posing as a potential client.

The story says “after hearing his visitor’s visa is due to expire in a month, [the employee] immediately suggests a refugee claim, even though the reporter hasn’t mentioned persecution or hardship in China. Success is nearly guaranteed, she says; only two refugee claims filed by her office have ever failed and ‘not because of us.’”

Eventually Cheng got drawn into the story after Niu failed to respond to the Star’s follow-up questions.

The story quotes Cheng as saying, “I need to investigate further. If that’s true that they told you to file a refugee claim when there isn’t a reason, that’s wrong.”

Cheng told CBC this sort of thing made him increasingly uncomfortable.

Winners slammed by complaints and lawsuits

According to Cheng, he eventually told Niu he wanted to disassociate from the company.

Cheng said he never got paid for any of the work he did for Winners.

But the work has had a lasting effect on his career. He said three complaints have been filed with ICCRC related to his work at Winners. He has also been named as a defendant in a lawsuit along with Winners, Niu and Canmax.

In July 2016, Cheng was publicly reprimanded by the ICCRC for his work in one of those cases. The regulator found Cheng had signed blank documents for the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program.

“The Member never met the complainant or provided any consulting services to the complainant,” the investigation found. It said Cheng had “in effect delegated or licensed his ICCRC membership to a third party.” It found he did not do this for dishonest reasons and wasn’t paid for the service.

When he left the company in 2011, Cheng urged Niu to shut it down.

Niu did get rid of Winners — by turning it into Canmax. A court judgement spells out how that happened.

In 2009, Yu Qiao hired Winners to help her sister immigrate to Canada. A court judgement, Yu Qiao vs. Winners, says Niu was Qiao’s main contact at Winners.

According to the judgement Qiao “said that Mike [Niu] made many confident promises” about how Saskatchewan’s program was a good and fast way to get into Canada.

One day, instead of meeting Niu at the Winners office, Qiao was directed to the offices of Canmax.

“Mike advised Qiao that Winners was expanding and that Winners and Canmax were the same company,” the judgement says.

Despite the new name, the same problems occurred.

The judge concluded, “it is not clear that either of the corporate defendants [Winners or Canmax] did anything to assist [Qiao’s] sister” and awarded $20,000 to Qiao.

Canmax's decline

It’s the Canmax companies that have faced the greatest number of lawsuits. CBC has identified about 20 actions against the company.

Canmax’s director of legal affairs, Roger Tsai, told CBC that at its peak (in 2011 and 2012) Canmax was processing 100-150 applications a year for the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program. At that time, it had 70-80 employees.