Lawsuits against businessman Arash Missaghi should proceed with urgency despite killing of accused, court is told

Open this photo in gallery:

A lawyer representing several victims of a man accused of defrauding hundreds of people of tens of millions of dollars has told court that the lawsuits against Arash Missaghi and his associates should proceed with urgency, despite the shooting death of Mr. Missaghi last week.

Peter Smiley, who represents a company whose owners are among dozens of entities suing Mr. Missaghi, his family members and his alleged associates, asked that the Ontario Superior Court do its utmost to identify where the dead man kept his assets.

“Mr. Missaghi has abused the court for many years and cannot continue doing so beyond the grave,” said Mr. Smiley.

He told Associate Justice Jay Josefo that the court must release records about Mr. Missaghi and enforce judgments made before his death.

“Our court has been so precise and careful but the court must recognize when it is being systematically abused,” Mr. Smiley said.

Mr. Missaghi was frequently accused of fraud in criminal and civil cases, but he was never held to account by the courts: Records show no criminal convictions for charges he faced, nor any record of successful lawsuits against him in Canada.

Still, the 54-year-old and his associates faced dozens of lawsuits arising from allegations he committed mortgage fraud and reaped in excess of $100-million over the past 20 years, according to Mr. Smiley. Mr. Missaghi was the subject of at least three major police investigations. At least five lawyers who worked for him were disciplined or disbarred by the Law Society of Ontario.

For years, courts have been contending with plaintiffs seeking the court’s help in restoring funds they invested and lost.

On June 17, Mr. Missaghi and an associate, Samira Yousefi, were killed in a shooting at Mr. Missaghi’s Toronto office. One of Mr. Missaghi’s alleged fraud victims, Alan Kats, wrote a suicide note before confronting them. Mr. Kats took his own life, according to his widow, Alisa Pogorelovsky.

Ms. Pogorelovsky has said her husband blamed the courts for failing to hold Mr. Missaghi accountable for fraud.

“The court process is extremely expensive and slow. In addition, the defendants are delaying the matter, making the process even more expensive,” she said.

Mr. Smiley asked the court on Tuesday to expedite proceedings by moving his client’s civil case to trial at the earliest date possible. As for the many other lawsuits facing Mr. Missaghi, Mr. Smiley said: “It’s not my client’s job to unravel the spider web that is Mr. Missaghi’s estate.”

Addressing the court, he said that Mr. Missaghi stalled lawsuit proceedings by not showing up to hearings, or by clogging courts with paperwork and ignoring judicial orders against him.

Mr. Smiley cited how previous cases have aired text messages sent by the alleged fraudster. “Stealing from a person like me is like stealing from Al Capone. … I don’t allow it to happen,” Mr. Missaghi wrote in 2018 text. He then added that, “I shake the system and change it and evolve people so everyone and every lawyer across the nation follows the new pattern.”

Mr. Smiley said Canada’s courts should not let Mr. Missaghi continue to manipulate the system after his death. “Let’s not let that be his epitaph,” the lawyer said.

Associate Justice Josefo ruled Tuesday that he would take time to deliberate and schedule next steps for the civil case involving Mr. Missaghi. No lawyer was in court representing Mr. Missaghi.

Mr. Smiley said it is crucial that the Ontario Superior Court be more effective in holding the Missaghi organization to account and find ways to make his victims whole.