A Burnaby “homemaker” who made a deal to exchange $450,000 in Canadian currency for Chinese Yuan is suing a Richmond-based currency exchange business for alleged unpaid funds.
Metrotown resident Peng Wei approached Richmond businessman Yongzu Zhang last April to arrange the exchange, according to allegations in a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court Monday.
Wei, who is described as a homemaker in the lawsuit, claims she gave Zhang a bank draft of $450,000 payable to Zhang’s company Hainaxin Global Investment Consultants Corp. (doing business as Hainaxin Exchange) in April 2022.
Zhang then paid Wei the equivalent of $309,804, but that still left $140,196 unpaid, according to the claim.
Wei says Zhang acknowledged the debt in a personal IOU issued in February and promised to pay the sum once he had sufficient funds, but the debt is still outstanding.
Wei alleges Zhang, instead of paying the debt, has used the money to pay off the mortgage on a five-bedroom house in Surrey worth $1,749,000, according to BC Assessment.
Zhang has been “unjustly enriched,” according to Wei, and she is appealing to the court for orders forcing Zhang and Hainaxin Exchange to pay back the $140,196 debt and Zhang to hold the Surrey property in trust for her.
Wei is also calling for a certificate of pending litigation against the property.
“The parties had a binding contract for the currency exchange,” states the claim. “The defendants failed, refused or ignored to pay the debt owing to the plaintiff despite repeated demands made by the plaintiff.”
The allegations made in the claim have not been proven in court.
Neither Zhang nor Hainaxin Exchange has yet filed a response to the lawsuit.
