Pair sue for $200,000 lost in failed residency bid

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A Chinese woman and her adult son are trying to get back $200,000 they paid a company to guarantee them Niuean and then New Zealand residency permits that were never issued.

Guo Ping Luo and her Auckland-based son Jean (Jordan) Yang paid Astorwood Investments $180,000 and agents working for the company $20,000 to guarantee the permits for their family. It is alleged that Luo and Yang were advised by Eugene Yuqin Li and Haiming Xiong, who were agents of Astorwood and also friends of Luo and Yang's, that they would gain permanent residency permits if they invested $200,000 in the Niue Investor Migrant Programme.

In March 2008, Astorwood gave Luo and Yang assurance the money would be returned if the permits were denied. In May 2008, they paid Astorwood $180,000 to seal the deal.

Permits - which are alleged to be fake - were issued, but only for a 90-day period instead of the three-year residency permits that were promised. The money had not been returned and Luo is still living in China.

Last year, Luo and Yang successfully won a legal battle to freeze $200,000 of Astorwood's assets. They filed further proceedings against Astorwood, director Richard Vesey, Yuqin Li and Xiong this year to get their money back. The hearing for that case ended yesterday when High Court Judge Geoffrey Venning reserved his decision.

Luo and Yang's lawyer Chris Patterson said his clients' sole aim for the investment in Niue was to gain New Zealand residency.

The Niue Government launched the scheme to raise capital for various projects and development opportunities around the island. In return for the money, investors were to gain a string of benefits including permanent residency. Astorwood signed an exclusive deal with the Government to source Chinese investors for the country. It has since ceased doing business with Niue.

Patterson said yesterday that there was no evidence the $200,000 had ever been invested into Niue and that Astorwood had never had the ability to acquire the residency permits.

The company was struck off by the Companies Office between August 25 and November 17, 2009.

Permanent residency in Niue does not guarantee residency in New Zealand; there are still procedures Niuean residents have to follow to legally work and live here.