A Richmond, British Columbia man has been convicted of first-degree murder in the 2020 shooting of Jian Jun Zhu, an alleged large-scale money launderer.
Jian Jun Zhu was brazenly gunned down at the Manzo Japanese restaurant in Richmond in September 2020. Richard Charles Reed has been found guilty of the murder, raising questions about who might have ordered the hit and why. Reed was also found not guilty of the attempted murder of Paul “King” Jin, an associate of Zhu. Jin, who was dining with the victim when Reed opened fire with a .45-caliber Norinco semi-automatic pistol, sustained injuries but survived.
British Columbia authorities believe that Jian was at the center of an operation that laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in drug money through the province’s casinos. Reed was identified as a man seen wearing a striped black and white hoodie, circling the restaurant before entering four minutes prior to the shooting. Prosecutors argued that he had been waiting for nightfall to make his escape under the cover of darkness.
When police searched Reed’s apartment, they discovered the murder weapon under the bed along with a loaded magazine bearing Reed’s fingerprint, serving as a crucial piece of evidence. Reed had frequent phone contact with three men who were either in the restaurant or in the vicinity at the time of the shooting. Justice Jeanne Watchuk noted that these men likely aided Reed in executing the killing.
Among these men, Jin Cai was also dining at Manzo and left just minutes before the killing. Cai was murdered in his home in Vancouver in June 2021. Another individual, Jack Qin, organized the meal. Qin was shot in the face in April 2021 but survived and testified at the trial. On the witness stand, Qin denied ordering the hit and directing Zhu to sit in a visible position close to the window, making him an easy target. The third man, Gordon Ma, was seen on surveillance video with Reed before the shooting and had frequent phone contact with Jin Cai both before and after the act. His current whereabouts are unknown.
Reed’s trial was a judge-only affair. In Canada, juries can be dispensed with in cases where there is a substantial risk of jury intimidation or tampering. In 2017, Zhu was the subject of a case that was billed as Canada’s largest money laundering prosecution. He was accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds through Vancouver-area casinos via his currency exchange company, Silver International. Prosecutors contended that Silver International was a front for an underground bank with ties to drug cartels.
The case collapsed when prosecutors inadvertently divulged the name of a significant government witness during standard evidence disclosure. The judge stayed the case, deciding that its continuation would place the witness at “high risk of death.”
Reed will be sentenced.
