Doleance claims have been issued by Zhijun Sun, Lingyan Liu, and Wei Wang and his family seeking a review of the Treasury Minster’s decision to curtail their immigration status.
Their visas were revoked in May under immigration rules relating to national security.
The claimants’ continued presence in the Isle of Man and UK had been deemed ‘not conducive to the public good’.
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But the claimants have still not been given the full reason for the decision, although they were supplied further information in September.
However, a link to e-gaming firm King Gaming, which was raided by police in April last year as part of a fraud and international money laundering investigation, emerged at a directions hearing in the high court this week.
Deemster Andrew Corlett said the reasons given for the visa revocation had been ‘vague’ but ‘some or all seem to be related to King Gaming.’
Speaking after the hearing, Mr Wang and his wife denied having had any involvement with King Gaming or its allied companies, or having knowledge of its beneficial owner, Chinese national Bill Morgan aka Liang Lingfei.
It was confirmed at the court hearing that Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson had signed off a memorandum removing the claimants’ right of appeal in the interests of national security.
The Treasury is seeking to have the doleance claims dealt with by way of public interest immunity - a process which allows the government to withhold information from disclosure if it is considered to harm the public interest.
Advocate Hannah Quinn, representing the Treasury, said this was the ‘most reasonable’ way of dealing with the matter, ensuring the reasons for the decision would be kept out of the public domain and away from the claimants.
But Winston Taylor, for the claimants, said going down the route of public interest immunity would be ‘long-winded, costly and laborious’ - and could breach their human rights.
He said the additional information cited reasons that were ‘more akin to criminality’ than national security - and they were not allegations but merely a suspicion of criminality.
Mr Taylor said: ‘We don’t know how they are supposed to be related to any criminality.
‘If there are allegations of money laundering they should have been arrested for money laundering.’
Speaking to Isle of Man Today, Mr Wang insisted he has not been involved in any criminality in the Isle of Man or China.
He was an investor in fintech company Blackfridge which had its financial services licence temporarily suspended by the island’s regulator in January this year.
Zhijun Sun was the firm’s chief executive officer.
The Wangs are still in the island on immigration bail but the other claimants are not.
Lingyan Liu was stranded in the Far East after her immigration status was rescinded, the court heard previously.
Mr Taylor suggested that ‘retro reasons’ had been unlawfully provided subsequently to justify the Treasury’s decision.
But Ms Quinn denied these were ‘retro reasons’ but simply reasons given at a later date.
Deemster Corlett said the words King Gaming ‘cropped up quite a lot in the so-called retro reasons’.
He said: ‘People are entitled to have at least some idea of why these very crucial decisions are made.
‘Mr Taylor’s clients received this letter out of the blue and didn’t receive any reasons at all. They only got some clue three or four months later.’
But he ruled that it would be inappropriate to quash the Treasury decision to issue the revocation notice.
He said it was now open to the Treasury Minister to sign a public interest immunity certificate.
He said: ‘It is certainly an unusual case.
‘I do have sympathy with the submissions on behalf of the claimants by Mr Taylor that the reasons given for the refusal of permission to remain in the Isle of Man were inadequate.
‘But one has to say it would be inappropriate for me today to quash the decision made by Treasury.’
The Deemster adjourned the case until January 15 when he will make a decision on whether to go down the route of public interest immunity - and consider submissions relating to the issue of retro reasons.
The court was told that the magnitude of the King Gaming matter is ‘huge’.
Premises on Victoria Road and Bucks Road in Douglas, linked to King Gaming were raided in April last year.
Seven people were arrested and three more the following month. All have been released on bail.
Construction work was halted on King Gaming’s planned £70m campus headquarters on Victoria Road which had been billed as the largest single private investment in the Isle of Man.
No one to date has appeared in court.
King Gaming and a series of allied companies were put into receivership by order of the high court on August 7 last year.
A document submitted to Companies Registry by the receivers reveals that when they were appointed King Gaming had £64.2m in the bank.