Vancouver lawyer suspended for submitting false documents in support of client’s $3.3M loan application

A Vancouver lawyer has admitted to improperly notarizing documents and solemnly declaring affidavits that contained information he knew was false in order to help a corporate client secure a $3.3-million loan from a U.S. bank.

Jason Chieh-Sheng Wang admitted his misconduct in a consent agreement with the Law Society of B.C., a summary of which was published online last week.

According to the document, Wang was retained by “a group of companies” in April 2023 to facilitate the loan application.

“Upon being retained, the lawyer was advised that the client was in difficult financial circumstances, and that it wished to obtain a loan from the lender on an urgent basis,” the summary reads.

The loan was secured by “five pieces of artwork as collateral,” according to the document.

None of the parties involved in the situation – other than Wang himself – are named in the consent agreement summary. Instead, the document uses parties’ initials.

“The loan was personally guaranteed by ZYZ and JM, whose respective families held the majority of the shares of the client,” the document reads. “The loan also required the approval of their respective spouses, YP and LW, documented by spousal consents.”

The lender told Wang it needed the spousal consent forms – along with other documents prepared in the U.S. – notarized, something the lawyer said would be impractical because some of the parties whose signatures were required were located in China.

The bank eventually agreed that Wang could notarize the signatures in question via video call.

Wang “purported to notarize” four documents on May 15, 2023, but he had not actually met the signatories via video call, or at all, according to the consent agreement summary.

The lawyer also created three affidavits in which he swore that the signatories had joined him on a video call and shown him both sides of their government-issued photo IDs before signing the documents.

“The lawyer solemnly declared the contents of the affidavits of execution to be true when he knew that he had not met with any of the signatories … via video conference or at all, and had not witnessed any of their signatures,” the summary reads.

Wang also admitted to deleting WeChat messages he had exchanged with the client’s representatives, in which he agreed to proceed with notarizing the documents without the requisite video call.

“The lawyer knew or ought to have known that deleting this client correspondence was

contrary to his obligation to maintain and preserve his client’s files and records," the summary reads.

For all of this admitted misconduct, Wang agreed to serve a one-month suspension, which began on June 16.

In accepting the consent agreement, the law society’s discipline panel considered three mitigating factors:

• Wang was “remorseful and self-reported his misconduct”
• One of Wang’s family members was very ill and required a medical procedure in April 2023, which was “a significant personal stressor” at the time of the misconduct
• And Wang “fully co-operated in efforts to resolve the matter and admitted his misconduct.”