Top 10 Reasons why John Park
and RCI just can't be trusted
- _It‘s public knowledge among prominent Taiwanese immigration agents and others that for a period in 2007, John Park recklessly risked numerous immigrant investors' $120,000 Federal Immigrant Investor Program (IIP) deposits by holding them in the private corporate account of his Vancouver company RCI Capital Group Inc. (RCI) instead of an insurance protected escrow account in his Montreal-based Renaissance Capital Inc. Renaissance, also wholly owned by Park, was the company investors signed their investment agreements with. It is a self-regulated member of both the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) and the Canadian Investment Protection Fund (CIPF) whereas RCI is a private non-reporting corporation. Renaissance President Sylvain Payette did nothing to stop this. RCI reverted back to depositing escrow funds in Renaissance only after considerable complaints from long-time agents. Luckily for the investors, John Park didn't lose the ‘escrow’ funds while playing with them and his private Vancouver company did not become insolvent while these funds were at risk. So no harm no foul right?
- As admitted by himself both in writing and on video, RCI owner John Park (a Korean-Canadian) tried to coerce and intimidate Henry Global - China’s biggest immigration agency (and allegedly 1 or 2 others) - to start doing business with RCI. So Park allegedly sent a Chinese tax official along with a senior RCI officer and board member to the agent's Beijing head office. Yes Park actually thought this was a brilliant idea. Turned out that agent just ignored Park’s somewhat misguided efforts. Who wants to do business with a guy like that? Epic fail.
- As irrefutably admitted by John Park on video, supported by well–documented written evidence, and, as attested by his former senior vice-president, Park embarked on a bizarre and reckless 2007 plan that fortunately did not pan out as Park hoped. His deviously ambitious scheme was to somehow convince the Chinese government that respected Quebec-based financial institution Desjardins Financial Group had been founded by officials associated with a separatist government (Parti Québécois), and that it was sympathetic to, and had ties with, both Taiwanese and Tibetan separatists and nationalists. John Park’s delusionary and entirely self-serving hypothesis was that Desjardins Financial - coincidentally RCI’s single biggest competitor in the immigration investment industry - was a possible threat to China’s national security and therefore should be banned from doing business there. Oh how convenient that would be for John Park’s business had his diabolical scheme succeeded. Luckily Park is more Honey Boo Boo than Machiavelli and this is not Bizarro World. Nope. You can’t make this shit up.
- Since mid 2011, the online homepage of RCICapitalGroup.com (and other promotional materials) inaccurately claims "RCI is the largest 'manager' of immigrant investor capital in Canada." Moreover it says that RCI’s “Renaissance Capital Inc., Montreal based Investment Dealer (member IIROC & CIPP) is "the largest manager of investor immigrant capital in Canada with over $1.6 billion in assets under management.” These outrageous claims are nothing less than a deliberate attempt by the company to try to puff up RCI’s credibility and fool prospective investors and business prospects. The claims are a gross misrepresentation, entirely untrue, and are allegedly a violation of IIROC and other regulations. RCI – through Renaissance - only administers paper assets (i.e. Renaissance merely keeps investors' promissory notes in its files for 5-year hold period). Renaissance merely administers the paperwork for immigrant investors whose funds are actually managed by the governments of Canada and provinces that receive funds from the immigrant investor program. The single page website also has a blurb featuring "RCI First Pathway Partners" LLC, a Milwaukee Wisconsin based private equity firm" as being a major part of the RCI Group. In fact, since August 2011, that company, which dropped the "RCI" baggage and now actually calls itself First Pathway Partners LLC, is no longer associated at all with RCI. The final break-up of the 2 former 50/50 joint venture partners was agreed to in January 2013 via arbitration before a US judge in Chicago. So there is yet another misrepresentation on a single web page. Any wonders why FPP quit RCI? Join the club. There is long line of former RCI business partners including Royal Bank of Canada and Bank of China (both banks canceled cooperation with RCI in 2009 due to its China scandal) so you will be in good company.
- In 2009 an innocent young French Canadian lawyer from Quebec, fresh out of college, was hired to work for Renaissance Capital Inc. He was posted in Beijing where he was no doubt looking forward to an exciting adventure working and experiencing what can be an exciting life for a young person in China. Instead, directly because of the cut-throat and under-handed way his boss John Park chooses to conduct business, he unwittingly found himself caught up in the middle of a very bad situation and circumstances beyond his control. Chinese police, at the behest of China’s entire immigration agency community, began an entirely merited investigation into RCI’s business activities in China. There was irrefutable proof that RCI had attempted to bypass Chinese immigration regulations in order to cut out the middle man and increase its profit margin. RCI stupidly conducted public seminars without proper authorization and it got caught red-handed. RCI’s offices were closed down. RCI deservedly lost millions in revenue because of its misdeeds but the real tragedy and untold story is that this RCI employee ended up losing almost 8 months of his life segregated in a Chinese jail. Imagine that. Let there be no doubt, this young man and his parents no doubt suffered greatly because of John Park's unethical practices. Good employee. Bad boss. Truth and consequences. You cannot escape bad karma. This innocent pawn did not know what he was signing up for and he paid dearly for the sins of his boss.
- Sylvain Payette C.A., the Montreal-based President of RCI-owned Renaissance Capital Inc. – an IIROC regulated brokerage firm which is a Quebec government designated International Finance Centre and also operates with the approval of Investissement Quebec and Immigration Quebec, admittedly knew about sister company RCI Capital Group Inc. holding FIIP escrow funds in its Vancouver corporate account but said to a colleague “what could he do” to stop the owner from doing what he wanted? Payette may also turn out to be implicated in an alleged ‘bait & switch scheme’ concerning diversion of capital-preservation-mandated First Nation trust fund money (more on that later). We think Payette had a fiduciary duty to investors to stop his boss John Park from putting investors’ funds at risk. As an IIROC member there was a lot he could do and should have done. Same with reported situation where there is solid evidence that low-level Renaissance employees were convinced by a conniving boss to provide one or more staff home addresses as belonging to numerous foreign national immigrant investors (to make it look like they were meeting their minimum Canadian residency requirements when they were not). RCI systematically supplied that false residency information to Citizenship and Immigration Canada to fraudulently obtain Canadian permanent resident cards, which in turn led to Canadian citizenship. Perhaps Payette needs to be investigated by both IIROC and the ethics committee of Québec branch of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. Yes? Mr. Payette allegedly helped perpetuate immigration fraud and was complicate in other irregularities. His hands are dirty, so don’t trust RCI.
- It’s better to play ethically right than be so morally wrong like John. On April 22, 2011, RCI Senior Vice President Seán Riley attended a meeting in Beijing he had arranged at the request of John Park. At this meeting was the owner of one of the largest immigration agencies in the world and 3 of his financial advisers (one listening via conference call from Hong Kong). Park wanted to interest the renowned agent to invest in RCI. Nothing wrong with that but Riley was shocked and disgusted when Park lied to the prospective investor group by falsely claiming and recklessly misrepresenting that a prominent Vancouver real estate developer had already invested $30 million for 40% of RCI Group. Park told them that they would replace this investor for the same price because he 'recognized they could bring more value to the relationship'. Park even brazenly named the fictitious shareholder and supplied the prospective partners with a “RCI Bank of Canada Business Plan” dated October 25 2010 that contained the biography of the supposed investor they would replace. The document also falsely named the person as a director of RCI. Riley was completely stunned to witness his employer make such bold and false misrepresentations. He knew that anyone could determine the truth of the matter with proper due diligence. That was the day he decided to quit RCI. Luckily the prospective RCI partner didn't invest either. The good folks at RCI Leaks made sure of that.
- On June 16, 2009, the Beijing Exit & Entry Agents Association, the independent body of Chinese government-regulated immigration agencies, held a widely publicized news conference that led to a China-wide boycott of RCI Capital Inc. and Renaissance Capital Inc. (few people know that RCI is short for “Royal Canadian Immigration” but in China, RCI's official Chinese name translates as the "Royal Canadian Fund"). The news conference reported RCI’s well-documented “illegal intermediation activities throughout the various sectors of society, especially immigration industry." It was reported in hundreds of Chinese blogs and media that several immigration industry associations’ executives throughout China received many complaints of RCI engaging in illegal business immigration activities. Both the Beijing and Shanghai Public Security Bureaus, and the Beijing Tax department, investigated RCI and its China offices were raided then shut down for 6 months. RCI’s 2 Canadian bank partners at thew time (RBC and BMO) quietly suspended financing for the company. Over 500 Chinese immigration agencies boycotted doing business with RCI and to this day, most of them still do. None of this information was ever reported by Western media. RCI has a very bad name in China and amongst all of its Canadian competitors. Deservedly so. Boycott RCI.
- South Korea-born John Park actually has two (2) birthdays (video link). There is the ‘official’ one on his Canadian passport then there is the real one he was born with. Seems there was a mix-up of the dates when Park immigrated to Canada and he never saw fit to correct it. Ironic that Park grew up to be in the immigration business and allegedly somewhat good at perpetrating fraud. How can you trust a guy with 2 birthdays?
- Have you even heard what John Park does with socks? I mean come on. This is actually a true story. So watch out. You could be next.