A Chinese woman is suing her husband's alleged mistress over a Burnaby house the wife claims was paid for out of approximately $4.6 million her husband "unlawfully" gave the younger woman from his family's joint savings.
Ci Huang, who is retired and lives in China, is suing Danni Zhu for the return of about $4.6 million in Canadian funds and control of a single-family home on Hersham Avenue worth more than $3.1 million, according to the latest BC Assessment figures.
Huang claims she and her husband, Xing Huang, had been married for 18 years when he met Zhu in 2014 when she was 22 years old, according to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court this month.
Huang says her husband and Zhu had a five-year affair from about 2015 to 2020, according to the claim.
When she found out about the alleged relationship, Huang says she also discovered her husband had "unlawfully caused" about $4.6 million (24.8 million Chinese yuan) to be transferred to Zhu from his family’s joint savings.
Huang says the transfers consisted of "a series of transactions involving several intermediaries and various accounts," according to the claim.
Huang claims Zhu knew about the unlawful act or was "reckless to, or wilfully blind" to it and assisted in it by receiving the funds.
About three weeks after one $800,000 transfer in April 2016, Zhu became the owner of the Hersham Avenue property, according to the claim, and Huang says Zhu used money transferred from Huang's family bank accounts for the down payment and other payments related to the home, according to the civil claim.
Zhu remains the sole owner or the property, the claim says.
Huang has already won a lawsuit against her husband and Zhu in China at the Chongchuan District People’s Court of Nantong City, according to the claim.
In that case, Huang says her husband acknowledged he had transferred the funds from his family’s joint savings to Zhu without his wife’s knowledge or consent.
Zhu, however, “disputed that she was gifted the funds,” the claim says.
Huang is now calling for orders from the B.C. court that would enforce the ruling of the Chinese court, which ordered Zhu to repay the $4.6 million.
Huang is also requesting court orders that would give Huang control of the Hersham Avenue property, arguing Zhu has been “unjustly enriched” by the generous gifts Huang’s husband allegedly made.
None of the allegations in the notice of civil claim has been proven in court.
Zhu has not yet filed a response to the allegations.
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