Billionaire Vancouver businessman David Ho faces criminal charges

VANCOUVER - David Ho, the billionaire entrepreneur who moved to Vancouver 25 years ago from Hong Kong, used to have a movie-prop police car parked at his $4-million Shaughnessy home to scare off would-be burglars.

On Dec. 28, 2008, at about 5 a.m., a real police car arrived at his Hudson Street home in response to a 911 call from neighbours involving a woman Ho had met online.

The vehicle’s presence signalled the beginning of a lengthy police investigation that resulted Monday in a series of criminal charges that could put the 57-year-old founder of the now-defunct Harmony Airways behind bars.

Ho, who in 2005 was named business leader of the year by the Vancouver Junior Board of Trade, faces seven criminal charges, including unlawful confinement, various firearm offences and possession of a controlled substance under schedule 1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which covers cocaine and heroin.

A conviction and jail time would bring a crashing halt to Ho’s long-running success story in Vancouver. The scion of a Chinese tobacco tycoon became well-known for his creation of the ill-fated Harmony Airways, his majority stake in the University Golf Club, his ownership of the city’s premier luxury car outlet and his brief tenure as a member of the Vancouver police board.

Ho was also a big donor to candidates for Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association and to former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, whose leadership bid received $100,000 from the entrepreneur.

The B.C. Liberals also benefited from Ho’s generosity. His donations to the party have totalled more than $100,000 since 2005.

Ho also hired Premier Gordon Campbell’s finance minister, Gary Collins, in 2004 to be president of Harmony Airlines. Collins quit after less than two years in the job.

Ho, whose full name is Ting Kwok David Ho, made contact with the alleged victim on a chat line on the evening of Dec. 28, 2008, say the police.

The entrepreneur, who was described in a 2005 profile by Peter C. Newman as a nighthawk whose brain “operates at Mach speeds with few respites,” picked up the woman and drove her back to his posh home off Granville Street.

At about 4:45 a.m., according to police, the woman attempted to leave the residence and Ho allegedly stopped her by blocking the door.

The woman was able to call 911 but unable to tell the operator the address of Ho’s home. She scuffled with Ho while on the phone and suffered minor bruises and scrapes.

The unidentified woman finally managed to flee the house, fracturing her ankle. Her screams were heard by neighbours, who called the police. Police say they not only rescued the distraught woman, but also allege they found cannabis, cocaine and a 9 mm Glock handgun inside Ho’s house.

Ho was held in custody earlier Monday, then released after paying his $100,000 bail in cash. His first court appearance date is Oct. 26. Ho’s lawyer Len Doust could not be reached for comment.

Ho is the grandson of the founder of Hong Kong Tobacco Co., the former British colony’s leading cigarette distributor.

In 1998, author Newman, in the final volume of Titans, his trilogy on the Canadian establishment, examined the Chinese business diaspora in Canada. Ho was one of his featured super-wealthy immigrants.

Ho told Newman that his grandfather was one of the first major investors to finance Bill Gates’ Microsoft. Ho’s family was also an early investor in IBM and a major shareholder in HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks.

Ho arrived in Canada in 1984, at age 30, after graduating from a private, all-male school in Virginia. He told Newman that he came to Vancouver because his then-wife had relatives here.

“When I first came here,” Ho recalled to Newman, “I’d never even heard of Vancouver before, but my wife was educated in Canada....I was most impressed - it was like being in Disneyland. I drove down Granville Street, and all the houses had gardens. The weather was very nice, and I said, ‘We’re going to stay here.’”

A year later, Ho moved here with his family and eventually become a Canadian citizen.

Ho showed his eye for appreciating assets in 1987 by purchasing for at least $100 million Gray Beverage, whose products included 7-Up and Pepsi. Ho sold that company for a sizable profit and in 1992 bought MCL Cars, the city’s top Jaguar, Porsche and Range Rover outlet, from Vancouver investor Bob Lee.

His business empire, called David T.K.Ho Enterprises, also included DTKH Robson Developments, a property development firm, and South Alder Greenhouses.

Ho also established Viking Security, which has since been sold, with Vern Campbell, a former Vancouver police superintendent and failed NPA council candidate. Ho donated $50,000 to Campbell’s campaign in 2002.

Ho told The Vancouver Sun in 2003 that he first met Campbell in the mid-1980s, when Ho served a two-year term on the Vancouver police board and Campbell was a police superintendent.

"He was the only guy willing to help me with some things I didn’t understand at the time," Ho told The Sun, crediting Campbell with assisting him in his assimilation into Canadian society.

Ex-cop Campbell, contacted Monday, declined to comment about his former business partner.

Another of Ho’s connections to the police came to light in 2005 when then-Vancouver police chief Jamie Graham was investigated by the RCMP for allegedly accepting financial assistance from Ho for staging a police chiefs conference. Graham was later cleared of any wrongdoing.

Ho’s reputation as a high-flying entrepreneur in B.C. is largely due to his launch in 2002 of Harmony Airlines, which served popular U.S. destinations such as Maui, Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

The oft-repeated story is that Ho got the idea to start a new airline in 2001 when he and his then 10-year-old daughter Kristen were stranded for 18 hours in an airport in Maui.

Ho launched Harmony a year later as My Airways, named in honour of his mother, then changed to HMY and finally Harmony. Ho opted to stop funding the airline in 2007 because of empty seats and soaring costs.

Ho, divorced in 1995, has three children: Kristen, Cynthia and Stephen. His ex-wife Rita Fung lives in Vancouver.

In his interview with Newman, Ho said that initially he found Vancouver very slow - there were no fax machines, still some anti-Chinese prejudice and high taxes.

“But do I regret coming here? Not at all, I married the future.”

dward@vancouversun.com

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