A businessman is suing two B.C. companies involved in sending recycled metal to China after other investors allegedly redirected $14.5 million in company funds to their own private bank accounts. 

Pei Liao Xu filed the notice of civil claim against two companies: Ever Recycling Inc., which has operated the metal recycling business in Surrey since 2005, and 0740117 B.C. Ltd., a numbered company that owns the land and building.

The company separates plastics and scrap metals—including copper, wire and other high-value alloys and components—and provides brokerage services to send them in shipping containers to places like Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand and China.

Ever Recycling’s website claims it has its own demolition teams that work on everything from commercial to residential buildings.

Records show the facility is also one of nearly 800 public collection depots in B.C. where the people can recycle batteries.

Court documents allege that when it was founded two decades ago, the operation had three original shareholders, including Hao Zhen Chen.

Xu claims he had been friends with Chen, and had provided him financial assistance before the company got off the ground. In 2006, Chen came to Xu looking to buy out the other shareholders, the petition claims. 

According to Xu, a series of transactions left him with 34 shares in each company. Xu claims to have lent the company $500,000. That was also when Xu alleges he got involved in Ever Recycling’s export business alongside Chen’s nephew.

The suit claims the nephew “improperly redirected” company money to his private bank account without authorization. When Xu demanded an “accounting and restitution,” Chen and his nephew refused, the suit claims.

The dispute led Xu to stop his active participation in the management and operations of the company though he remained a company director, claims the petition.

Xu says he discussed selling his shares to Chen in 2008 but the two did not end up reaching an agreement.

In 2012, Xu claims Chen and another shareholder, Hai Liang Su, allegedly attempted to remove him as director of the two companies. The plaintiff claims that without a vote and with no notification, the two other shareholders filed a notice of change of directors with B.C.’s corporate registry.

Xu wasn’t the only one apparently concerned with Ever Recycling’s operations.

In a 2011 complaint to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, Chen, Su and other Ever Recycling staff alleged that City of Surrey bylaw officers had harassed its directors and employees based on their race during inspections that began in 2007.

The complaint alleged city staff used vehicles to block the public entrance to the company’s scrap yard, yelled at Ever Recycling staff and ownership, conducted illegal searches, threatened to close the business, and ticketed them “for every possible bylaw infraction.”

A B.C. Supreme Court judge ultimately dismissed the complaint over lack of evidence, among other things.

It wasn’t until 2025 that Xu claims he reviewed corporate records as part of his investigation into the finances of the two companies.

Xu alleges he discovered that Chen and Su had caused the corporations to “misappropriate, dissipate, and divert profits” from its bank accounts through “illegitimate withdrawals.” They are also alleged to have concealed and withheld cash from corporate records and bank accounts, and obtained illegitimate loans.

“From 2018 to April 2025, Chen and Su have caused over $14,500,000 to be withdrawn from Ever Recycling’s bank accounts,” the suit claims. “These funds have been diverted for the personal benefit of Chen, Su, and related parties.”

A North Vancouver-based lawyer for Xu declined a request for an interview.

Neither Chen, Su, nor anyone in management at Ever Recycling responded to Business in Vancouver‘s attempts to seek comment.  

Despite the companies having a sufficient and abundant cash flow, Xu alleges that Chen obtained corporate loans with favourable terms to third-party lenders, including his wife.

Financial statements referenced in the petition say Ever Recycling paid rent to the numbered company that owns the land. However, that company’s records don’t show that any rent had been paid, alleges Xu.

At times, Xu claims he has struggled to obtain financial records from the two companies over the past nine months. He alleges Chen and Su responded to requests for information with claims that Xu was no longer a director of the companies and so had no right to view corporate records.

Xu is calling on a B.C. Supreme Court judge to issue an interim order prohibiting the corporations from selling property beyond what’s necessary for the companies’ day-to-day operations.

He is also seeking declarations that Xu is indeed a shareholder in the companies and that he has been subject to oppressive conduct.

The businessman is calling for a court order appointing an inspector to carry out an investigation into the companies’ financial records going back to 2008. That investigation, said Xu, should also include a tracing order of corporate funds, and recommendations to the court on recovering corporate money that he alleges was improperly paid.

Alternatively, the petition seeks one of two orders: direct the corporations to buy out Xu once they are properly valued by a third party, or liquidate and dissolve them entirely.

None of the claims have been tested in court.