RCMP national security officers were waiting for William Majcher when his flight from Hong Kong landed at Vancouver International Airport on July 18, 2023.
Inside an airport interview room, they questioned the former Mountie for five hours, and when they were done, Majcher said he still wasn’t sure what it was about.
“I can’t say it was well articulated,” Majcher told Global News in an exclusive interview, his first since his high-profile espionage trial ended last month.
“None of it made sense to me.”
On May 13, a B.C. judge agreed, acquitting Majcher of a charge alleging he was part of a Chinese government foreign interference operation.
What began with sensational claims — that Majcher was helping Beijing secretly extend its long reach into Canada — ended with a whimper.
And as Prime Minister Mark Carney courts Beijing amid a U.S. trade war, the botched case has raised questions about the strength of Canada’s defences against China.
The investigation targeted former police officers whom the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP suspected were offering their services to Beijing.
It revolved around Majcher, a former RCMP inspector who left the national police force in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong to work in banking and private security.
As a retired Mountie in business in Hong Kong, Majcher said he thought he had done everything possible to keep on the right side of Canada’s laws and interests.
While he took jobs from Chinese state-owned enterprises, he said he never knowingly worked for the Chinese state, its public security bureau or police.
He helped CSIS when asked, and made sure the agency knew what he was up to. When he returned to Canada on business, he disclosed his work to border officials.
His candour, however, worked against him.
Amid politically damaging allegations in Ottawa about Chinese foreign interference, Majcher was branded a Chinese asset and a threat to Canada.
He became one of the few ever arrested over allegations of Chinese meddling in Canadian affairs. But the case left a key question unresolved: what is foreign interference?
With the trial now behind him, Majcher told Global News he believes the RCMP and CSIS are right to be worried about the activities of foreign governments, whether China or India. But as a veteran RCMP officer, he expected better from Canada’s national security system, and said the case raised broader concerns.
“Canada should be very concerned that this is the level of investigative quality that we can expect from our national police force in something as vital as national security,” Majcher said.
He said Canada needs competent intelligence and law enforcement. “And from where I sit, we have neither. That is the greatest national security threat facing Canada.”
CSIS declined to comment. The RCMP said in a statement that it would be reviewing the court’s decision on Majcher. Last week, federal prosecutors appealed Majcher’s acquittal.
But thousands of pages of documents reviewed by Global News show how a major investigation involving at least three federal departments and almost 80 search warrants came up short.
An expert in financial crimes, Majcher joined the RCMP in 1985 and went undercover inside drug cartels, posing as a banker who could launder their profits.
He retired in 2007 and moved to Hong Kong to work for a merchant bank, and then an investment fund, before starting his own firm, EMIDR, in 2015.
A cybersecurity company, EMIDR got involved in asset recovery when a client asked Majcher to track millions stolen in a Bitcoin hack, he said.
As a former police officer who had segued into private security, he exchanged information about stolen assets with colleagues on the same career path, but it wasn’t a big part of his business, he said.
Mostly, he provided procurement, logistics and advisory services, helping banks and governments understand financial crime. “I’m a Jack-of-all-trades kind of guy,” he told the RCMP following his arrest.
Majcher also did more secretive work. In 2011, CSIS approached him for help in Asia, according to a 13-page document he wrote that became part of the RCMP’s investigation.
A covert operations officer asked Majcher if he could set up weapons caches for moving sidearms across borders for the agency, the document said.
Majcher thought it was possible and suggested a location on the Indian Ocean, possibly Sri Lanka, but CSIS did not raise the topic again.
A few months later, Canadian intelligence contacted him again, the document said, this time about inserting CSIS personnel into Hong Kong businesses.
The officer asked if Majcher would consider employing CSIS operatives to bolster their cover stories, according to the document.
But CSIS decided it didn’t have anyone qualified, and recruited Majcher for the job, which involved getting close to Chinese targets.
“I was prepared to do my part,” Majcher wrote.
He met his CSIS handler in Canada and was later introduced to the British secret intelligence service, MI-6, which was part of the joint operation, he said.
In Bangkok, Majcher was given a secure laptop and a briefing on the targets CSIS considered “high value,” he wrote.
The project wound down after less than two years, according to the document, and CSIS paid him in cash, delivered in an envelope.
Majcher said he had similarly helped other members of the Five Eyes alliance, which includes not only Canada but also the U.K., U.S., Australia and New Zealand.
CSIS declined to comment on whether Majcher had worked for the agency. But an RCMP report said his account suggested he may have been a CSIS asset between 2011 and 2015.
By the end 2018, the report continued, he was “possibly considered a ‘threat’ to the security of Canada due to his involvement in the case of Meng Wanzhou.”
A top executive of Chinese tech giant Huawei, Meng was taken into custody as she transited through Vancouver airport on Dec. 1, 2018.
The United States had issued a warrant for her arrest over her alleged dealings with Iran, and Canada held her for extradition.
As China ramped up pressure on Ottawa to release her, Majcher was contacted by Anbound, a Beijing think tank, about the Meng affair.
Anbound wanted him to travel to Vancouver and write a report on legal strategies surrounding Meng’s extradition. “It was very basic,” Majcher said.
But then China raised the stakes by arresting two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, who became bargaining chips for Meng’s release.
“And so I said, OK, this is getting a bit more sensitive,” Majcher told Global News. “So I made an effort to notify the Canadian government, CSIS specifically, that I was coming to Canada and what it was about and if you want to talk to me, I’m available.”
Because Thailand had been his contact point with CSIS in the past, he went to the Canadian embassy and told the CSIS officer about the Anbound assignment, and his suspicion the Chinese government might be behind it.
He said he would be flying to Vancouver to fulfill the contract and was willing to use the opportunity to resume working for CSIS.
But the agency didn’t take up his offer, nor did it raise any concerns about the Anbound work, he said, so he flew to Vancouver on Jan. 19, 2019.
Apparently flagged by CSIS prior to his arrival, he was questioned by the CBSA and again explained that he was working for a Chinese entity on the Meng case.
According to the CBSA report on his interview, Majcher “revealed that he was asked by the Chinese government to come to talk to some Canadian government officials.”
“He also stated that part of the reason for his trip is because of the Huawei executive that was arrested in Vancouver,” the report said.
“He stated that the Chinese government had consulted him about the situation and court process and the overall situation. The subject stated that he has close ties to the Chinese government and that they are fully aware of his past occupation.”
Majcher told Global News the CBSA report was incorrect, and the officer’s notes do not make the same allegations. He said he never said he was working for the Chinese government, and had never knowingly done so.
A search of his bags turned up nothing, and Majcher was allowed to proceed, but the trip, together with a visit to Toronto in May, appears to have made him a target.
On March 9, 2022, CSIS issued an Espionage Alert that called Majcher a significant “threat to Canada and Canadian national interests.”
“He is working as an asset of hostile intelligence threat actors in the People’s Republic of China,” the government-wide bulletin said.
“Majcher continues to undertake intelligence-gathering activities in Canada on behalf of the PRC including by leveraging contacts within Canada,” it said.
CSIS had made him out to be “Canada’s Kim Philby,” Majcher said, referring to the notorious British intelligence officer who became a Soviet double agent.
But Majcher said he had done everything imaginable to stay on the right side of Canadian national security agencies, ensuring they were informed of his work.
“And all I did was put a bullseye on my back,” he said.
The investigation also dragged in Majcher’s Canadian contacts, notably RCMP officer Peter Merrifield and Paul McNamara, a former Vancouver police officer who had moved to the private sector.
Merrifield said he suddenly found himself under investigation as a result of false intelligence and lost his top secret security clearance, although he was ultimately exonerated.
“This case represents the most egregious example of ‘proceed by confirmation bias’ of a national security investigation,” he said.
“It is a clear warning shot to Canada of the lack of capability in Canada’s national security agencies and infrastructure to separate and filter information from targeted disinformation.”
McNamara had worked with Majcher when both were police officers, and although they kept in touch over the years, he said they had no business relationship.
But investigators noted that when Majcher had visited Vancouver to write his report on Meng, he had met with McNamara.
McNamara worked for VXL Enterprise, a company that protects U.S. diplomatic posts in Canada, but his security clearance was revoked in 2021 and he lost his job.
He blamed CSIS for turning his friendship with Majcher and his own 2019 visit to China to buy a training pool for his daughter, a competitive swimmer, into a conspiracy.
“They fully believed that Majcher had this in-depth, evil network of police officers working for him at the behest of China,” he told Global News.
“And it’s absolute garbage,” he said. “They basically send what they think is this big espionage file involving Meng Wanzhou to the RCMP on Sept. 14th, 2021.”
Foreign interference was emerging as a top priority for the government when the RCMP took an interest in Majcher, amid reports of Beijing’s tampering in Canadian life and politics.
Drowning in corruption, China launched Operation Fox Hunt to stage a show of tracking down alleged economic criminals who had fled abroad with money.
To convince them to return to admit their guilt, Chinese security agencies resorted to harassment, threats and even kidnapping. CSIS suspected China was hiring lawyers and private investigators to track down some of them in western countries.
But Fox Hunt also used its anti-corruption drive as a cover for silencing dissidents in the diaspora in Canada and elsewhere, as well as to demonstrate that China’s reach had no limits.
China’s actions were an affront to Canada’s sovereignty, and the RCMP was responsible for stopping them, but the victims were reluctant to come forward. And then the RCMP learned that CSIS was investigating a retired Mountie.
Based on a tip from CSIS, the RCMP launched Project Severo in 2021 to investigate Majcher’s alleged activities on behalf of the Chinese state.
In particular, CSIS pointed the RCMP to an Australian television documentary on Operation Fox Hunt in which Majcher had appeared.
The documentary was about a Hong Kong company that had hired former law enforcement officials to recover assets allegedly stolen from China.
In the broadcast, Majcher called himself “a hired gun” who helped corporations and governments “get back what is rightfully theirs.”
Matcher told Global News he was playing for the cameras. “I can actually get acting credits for those things,” he said.
He said he knew how to “polish the apple” to make a story more entertaining, but denied any involvement in the cases featured in the documentary.
To the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in Quebec, however, the video was the starting point for an investigation.
The RCMP felt that Majcher’s years of service to Canada’s national police force had left him “a well-suited candidate” for China.
“Majcher had and has an extensive network of contacts within the law enforcement and national security community,” the RCMP wrote.
In a memo marked Secret, the RCMP’s Foreign Actor Interference Team noted that Majcher also had “ongoing contact with RCMP members.”
Those contacts “may wittingly or unwittingly” be providing assistance to Majcher’s “illegitimate and legitimate support of the objectives of the PRC,” it said.
“The activities of Majcher are a threat to the sovereignty of Canada,” the RCMP wrote. “Project Severo aims to investigate and neutralize that threat.”
To get search warrants, police told a Quebec judge they needed to seize Majcher’s communications because he reported to China’s Public Security Bureau.
The RCMP also obtained warrants from the federal court to search the phone records of other former police officers, including McNamara, dating back to 2014, the year Fox Hunt began.
“Majcher is well-connected to the Chinese government,” the RCMP told the judge. “He has close ties with the Chinese government” and works at its “behest.”
Majcher called those statements “utterly false.”
The warrants show how the focus of the investigation had shifted from the Meng affair to Majcher’s supposed role in Operation Fox Hunt.
They noted that in 2017, Majcher had told a colleague in an email that he was involved in negotiations with China to recover money from someone wanted by China.
If the unnamed “target” did not cooperate, there would be an extradition request, he wrote, but “we feel he is motivated … as we can guarantee him his passport and no jail time.”
Majcher told Global News he was working with a lawyer to determine whether anyone had a court claim against the suspect. Once they realized no such court proceedings had been initiated, they dropped it, he said.
A year into the investigation, the RCMP received a 13-page report Majcher had written that spelled out his work for CSIS. Majcher had given it to Merrifield, a serving RCMP officer, who gave it to the investigation team.
The development “could have detrimental effects on the current investigation,” the RCMP wrote in a top secret report that said police needed to clarify with CSIS whether Majcher had indeed worked for the agency.
“These questions, if left unanswered, ultimately threaten the RCMP’s ongoing investigation into Majcher,” the RCMP report said.
Whether CSIS responded is not explained in the documents. Former CSIS executive Dan Stanton said he found Majcher’s account hard to believe.
“The talk about gun caches in a foreign country, and terminology like assets. That’s kind of a Hollywood word. It just seems a little incredible to me.”
But the documents show that on July 15, 2023, the RCMP learned that Majcher was coming to Canada and decided to arrest him.
The decision was prompted partly by concerns that news of the investigation was beginning to spread. Majcher himself had already got wind of it from a news reporter.
“The arrest of Majcher will ensure that public interest is upheld,” the RCMP wrote in its decision, adding it would also put an end to “the ongoing conspiracy.”
In the interview conducted after Majcher’s arrest, the officer talked about Operation Fox Hunt and said that some of those targeted were in Canada.
He mentioned the Australian documentary about Fox Hunt targets who were threatened, and said, “We believe the same is happening here in Canada.”
“Your name came up for a few incidents,” the officer said. “Do we have the accurate information, or are we just being fed the wrong information?”
“I have not done anything unlawful,” Majcher responded.
The RCMP interviews were a “fishing trip,” Majcher told Global News. Names like Meng Wanzhou were mentioned, but it was vague and disconnected.
“‘We’re hearing things, we’re picking up on some things.’ ‘OK, well, why don’t you tell me then what specifically you’re interested in?’” he said, describing the conversations.
“And I asked repeatedly, ‘Can you explain to me what are the elements of the offence? I mean, I’m just not understanding what you think I’ve done,’” he said. “All the investigator would do is just read the charge.”
The charges alleged that Majcher had been part of an effort to compel a Fox Hunt target, Kevin Sun, to return to China in 2017.
Beijing had accused Sun of moving to Canada with tens of millions he had allegedly pilfered from the Industrial Commercial Bank of China.
The RCMP theory was that Chinese authorities had sent Majcher to Vancouver to “identify and intimidate” Sun so he would return to China.
Majcher denies that and told Global News he had never once worked for China. “I have no relationship, no direct relationship. Never have.”
“I know people who say they know people. I mean, it’s the old daisy chain,” he said. “I’m not hiding anything. I told the truth.
“And they chose to ignore it.”
The trial was already falling apart by the time it began in April. The B.C. courts had ruled that Majcher’s arrest was unlawful as it was based on nothing more than a “hunch.”
The court also tossed out the results of the search of the home of one of Majcher’s associates, Kim Marsh, a former RCMP officer with his own security business, because police had no evidence that any crime was committed.
The prosecution came down to a single email. The Crown closed its case after just two days. The defence argued Majcher had done everything by the book.
The judge ruled that the case was all inferences, and there was no evidence Majcher had done any of the things the Crown was alleging.
It was Canada’s latest failed prosecution under the Security of Information Act, which was Ottawa’s legislative response to foreign interference.
Previous cases alleging a Canadian Space Agency employee and a government contractor had worked illicitly for China similarly fell apart, while a decision on another is pending.
McNamara said the Majcher investigation should have ended when the evidence contradicted the RCMP’s theory about former police officers doing China’s dirty work.
“Foreign interference is a real thing. It’s always going to be there, it’s going to happen, and we can’t dictate what other countries are going to try to do to Canada,” he said.
“But what we can control is how robust and efficient our intelligence and policing services are. And having gone through this particular case, if this is the level of intelligence and incompetence we have to fight foreign interference or espionage, the offending country is not the issue, it’s our inability to defend ourselves.”
For its part, the RCMP said that many former members move into the private sector, and they are not barred from working for foreign governments.
“However, any such work must comply with Canadian laws that protect national security and government information — they must not engage in activities that harm Canada’s interests,” the RCMP said.
“If these obligations are breached, individuals may face investigation and penalties under federal law, including criminal charges.”
But the case against Majcher suggests Canada’s national security apparatus isn’t clear about the distinction between legitimately working for a foreign state and engaging in foreign interference. Where is the line?
And if police and intelligence investigators don’t know, how are their former colleagues who have moved on to the private sector supposed to know?
“In this case, the definition of foreign interference actually raises more questions than answers. There doesn’t seem to be a clear line,” said Fabian Dawson, a Vancouver investigative journalist.
Dawson said legal and accounting firms have been implicated in pressuring fugitives in Canada on behalf of the Chinese government, but none have been charged.
“So why did they pick this particular file to go ahead and prove that they are showing that Canada is serious about foreign interference?” said Dawson, who has written extensively about the case.
He believes a public inquiry is needed to ensure national security investigations are not politically driven and to show Canada is serious about foreign interference.
“I do think that lessons need to be learned from this. We need an inquiry. Not to find blame. We need a inquiry to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Before returning to Hong Kong, Majcher told Global News the prosecution had been a “horrific way to lose three years of your life.”
“I had spent, at that point, 18 years building up my brand in Hong Kong, my network, and in one fell swoop, the half-wits took it away,” he said.
Last year, he sued the RCMP and CSIS for what his statement of claim alleges was a malicious prosecution, which he suspects relied on a witness he called unreliable.
Majcher said his businesses had suffered, and he had spent “a lot of money” defending himself, but most importantly, he lost precious time with his kids.
“I’ve been robbed of three years, and there needs to be accountability,” he said. “Not because it happened to me, but because it even happened at all.”
Stewart.Bell@globalnews.ca
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