'A patriot not a traitor': former Mountie accused of being an agent for China

Former Mountie William Majcher has made a career out of deception and dancing on the edge of danger. As a young officer, he nearly died after being jumped from behind and smashed repeatedly in the head with a steel bar. After transitioning into undercover work, Majcher was planted in the same cell as an Air India terror suspect. He infiltrated the Medellin drug cartel and was warned he was on a hit list after a $100,000 bounty was put on his head.

His subterfuge maximized his easy-going demeanour and commerce degree from St. Mary’s University, allowing him to pose as a clean cut expert in money laundering. This work in the shadows came in handy when he was tasked to run the B.C. office of the RCMP’s financial crime unit before retiring in 2007.

Now, Majcher is accused of being a foreign agent for China, and charged under the Security of Information Act, the law used in Canada to prosecute alleged spies and turncoats.

“I’m a patriot, not a traitor,” Majcher said in an exclusive interview with CTV National News in Toronto.

“I’ll stand in a courtroom. I’ll take a polygraph and I’ll challenge any of these people making the accusations to take a polygraph,” he said.

The charges stem from Majcher’s time in Hong Kong where he has lived for nearly two decades after retiring from the national police force. Since moving there, Majcher says he has worked with Chinese investment banks and law firms to recover stolen assets that were being laundered overseas. In 2016, he co-founded a EMIDR, a corporate asset recovery firm based in Hong Kong.

In his hour-long interview, Majcher said that he was aware the RCMP were investigating him and flew to Canada from Hong Kong last July to “deal with the issue.”

“Obviously, I miscalculated because I was arrested. I thought the truth will set you free.”

Instead, Majcher was taken into custody, and spent weeks in the same Burnaby jail where decades earlier he shared a cell with Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik in order to tease out information.

A Matter of National Security

The charges against Majcher were laid by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET).

INSET’s role is to track and disrupt threats to Canada’s national security, including foreign interference.

Following his arrest last July, the RCMP also charged Majcher with conspiring with another former RCMP officer, Kenneth Marsh, to “obtain intelligence or services to benefit the People's Republic of China.”

At the time, authorities said, Majcher allegedly "contributed to the Chinese government's efforts to identify and intimidate an individual outside the scope of Canadian law."

Security experts say it’s likely Majcher’s charges are related to international concerns about China’s efforts to repatriate Chinese fugitives and proceeds of crime stashed away overseas.

The Chinese Communist Party’s statistics from October 2022 show that more than 12,000 Chinese Nationals have been “involuntarily returned” to China from overseas, under its two anti-corruption campaigns, Operation Fox Hunt and Sky Net.

According to Spanish NGO Safeguard Defenders alleged fugitives were repatriated using extradition as well as covert methods such as threats and kidnapping. Not all of those forced to return home are suspected criminals.

Human rights groups say fighting corruption was also a guise used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to silence its critics and control its diaspora.

CTV News has confirmed that Vancouver Real Estate developer and Chinese national Kevin Sun was Majcher’s alleged target of foreign interference and intimidation as previously reported by the Globe and Mail and The Bureau.

But when reached for comment, Sun’s lawyer James Carpick said in an email on March 12, that his client had not been interviewed by the RCMP, that he did not know Majcher, and that he had never spoken to him.

Majcher declined to answer questions about the current charges he’s facing related to Sun, but says that he always acted “within the law.”

Operation Fox Hunt

According to his charge sheet, RCMP scrutinized Majcher’s activities from 2014-2019. When Operation Fox Hunt was launched in 2014, China’s state security would work with foreign law enforcement agencies and legal firms to repatriate nationals from across the globe to face justice in China.

During the state visit of China’s Premier Le Keqiang in 2016, the Canadian government signed a treaty with China to work together to recover and share in the return of stolen assets. According to Chinese state media, Canada was the first country to enter into such a treaty with China since it launched Fox Hunt.

Majcher has been open about his work as a corporate bounty hunter. In a February 2019 documentary produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Majcher referred to himself as a “hired gun.” That same month, according to the minutes of a meeting of the British Council All Party Parliamentary Group, Macher said he was working with China to return “U.S. $1.2 trillion of fraudulently acquired money.”

Majcher says he’s capitalist, not a criminal.

“The fact is, unless you're a government lawyer or a government accountant or working for a corporation, everybody else is freelancing out there. Everybody's working and hustling for business,” he said.

William Majcher speaks to CTV News in an exclusive interview. (Chris Gargus)

Meng, the Michaels and Majcher

Majcher believes he came under suspicion shortly after the arrest of Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou and China’s detention of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

Meng was arrested on Dec. 1, 2018 at the Vancouver International Airport by Canadian authorities after a New York judge issued a warrant for her arrest. She was initially accused of doing business with Iran and violating U.S. economic sanctions. China would detain the two Michaels days later, alleging they were spies. The saga took two and half years to conclude and corroded Chinese-Canadian relations.

In January 2019, Majcher was hired by a Chinese think tank to gather information about the extradition process in Meng’s case. Aware of the politically charged climate in Canada, Majcher says he took the precautionary measure to “self-report” his business activity. Concerned that the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong would be monitored by the Chinese, Majcher says he decided to check in at the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok and spoke with an RCMP liaison officer.

“‘Can you have somebody from CSIS contact me?’ (I asked). And a few hours later, somebody did,” Majcher recounted. He refused to provide more details about the conversation with the CSIS agent.

When asked bluntly if he was a CSIS asset, Majcher said “no comment.”

A few weeks after his visit to Thailand, Majcher flew to Vancouver to begin his research on the Meng extradition. Majcher expected to be pulled aside by the Canada Border Services Agency at the airport but was surprised when CBSA agents demanded he unlock his phone to verify there was no child pornography on his device. Majcher says a routine search for photos should take approximately ten minutes, instead it took more than an hour. In hindsight - he suspects that a surveillance device was installed on his phone four years ago during that secondary screening.

When contacted for comment, Canada’s spy agency responded in an email that “it would be inappropriate for CSIS to comment on matters currently before the courts.”

The RCMP was also asked if it was aware Majcher had “self reported” to the Canadian embassy in Bangkok and was also asked if it had contacted the Vancouver real estate agent who was Majcher’s alleged target.

In an email response after this story was published, RCMP media relations said that it “works closely with CSIS pursuant to our distinct and complementary mandates,” and that it would be inappropriate to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Media relations staff also stated that for “privacy and operational reasons,” the RCMP does not release information about investigations until it becomes a matter of public record.

Family Separation

Majcher is currently living in Niagara Falls with his sister who is one of his sureties. He posted $50,000 bail and put up another $200,000 bond to secure his release. He needs to check in at the Hamilton Police station once a week while he waits for his trial.

When he was first arrested, Majcher claims jail guards prevented him from taking his thyroid cancer medication for six days which he says resulted in a break out of shingles on his body.

The former Mountie says he offered to pay a higher bond of $1,000,000 so he could return to Hong Kong to continue his cancer treatments and see his family. He is married with two daughters, ages 11 and seven years old.

Majcher said the court denied his request because it was concerned “China may not let him leave.”

The updates from his wife and children are the calls that he simultaneously anticipates and dreads.

During his interview Majcher played a recording of a recent video call with his youngest daughter.

“I want daddy! Daddy - when are you coming back home?” wails the child.

“This is what I deal with everyday. I don’t want to be here. I want to be with my family. I think of the blood I’ve poured and spilled for this country,” said Majcher.

The next step in his fight to return home will be at his next court appearance. On April 22, Majcher says his lawyer will make an application to quash the charges against him on jurisdictional grounds. The foreign interference he’s accused of committing, the victim and his alleged co-conspirator all live in the Vancouver area, yet he’s being tried in a Quebec court.

With files from CTV News' Elvy Alias