Can a lender challenge debtors’ transactions with a parent company as fraudulent conveyances when the debtors had disclosed the transactions before the loan was advanced? In NYDIG ABL LLC v IE CA 3 Holdings Ltd, the Supreme Court of British Columbia said yes. On appeal, the British Columbia Court of Appeal in IE CA 3 Holdings Ltd v NYDIG ABL LLC said no, finding that transfers from the subsidiaries to their parent had not been fraudulent conveyances because they had been…
The general rule in bankruptcy is that a debtor receives a “fresh start” and is discharged from prior debts, but this is subject to certain exceptions. Subsection 178(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA) sets out eight classes of debts that are not released by an order of discharge including an exception for debts that arise out of fraud. In Poonian v. British Columbia (Securities Commission) the Supreme Court of Canada adopted a narrower interpretation of whether a claim should survive bankruptcy under…
In a decision released in 2023, Justice Vermette of the Ontario Superior Court rejected an application to set aside an arbitration award on procedural fairness and jurisdictional grounds. This decision clarified when Ontario’s International Commercial Arbitration Act (the “ICAA”) applies and confirmed that arbitration awards may only be set aside by courts on narrow grounds. Background A group of accredited investors who had invested funds in EDE Capital—an investment company—brought a claim to arbitration on the basis of misrepresentation as to…
In Ontario, as a general rule, partial indemnity, which ranges from approximately 40-60% of the actual costs incurred by a party, is awarded to the successful litigant. Full indemnity, which comprises 100% of the costs incurred, is granted only in exceptional and rare circumstances. An order for full indemnity is even more unusual if the action has been discontinued. However, in 781526 Ontario Inc. et al v Elliott Gerstein et al, 2023 ONSC 4313 the Ontario Superior Court of Justice found…
Can individuals take steps to make themselves ‘creditor proof’ against future creditors, even when there is no such creditor at the time? If there are sufficient “badges of fraud” present, the answer may be no.
In a post last year, we discussed the decision of the British Columbia Court of Appeal in Poonian v. British Columbia (Securities Commission), 2022 BCCA 274 in which the British Columbia Court of Appeal held that an administrative penalty by a securities commission relating to fraud survives bankruptcy. The penalty arose from findings made by the British Columbia Securities Commission that the debtor engaged in conduct to mislead the public about a company in order to influence its share price. The…
A bankruptcy discharge releases the debtor from pre-bankruptcy debts or liabilities. The purpose is to give the debtor a “fresh start” from excessive debts that cannot be repaid, except in certain situations such as where the debt arises from deceitful or fraudulent conduct. In Poonian v. British Columbia (Securities Commission), the British Columbia Court of Appeal held that securities sanctions are excluded from bankruptcy discharge. This is significant because this decision diverges from other Canadian appellate decisions.
Aiden Pleterski, the self-described “Crypto King“, and his company AP Private Equity Limited were petitioned into bankruptcy on August 9, 2022 on application by certain of their creditors. David Gadsden, Michael Nowina and Ben Sakamoto at Baker McKenzie act for the creditors who brought the bankruptcy applications.
A preferential transaction occurs where an insolvent person or debtor makes a transfer of property or a payment that has the effect of favouring one creditor over another. Creditors and bankruptcy trustees can use federal or provincial legislation to attack preferential transactions. A recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision, Golden Oaks Enterprises Inc v Scott, 2022 ONCA 509, upheld the finding that certain transactions were an unlawful preference under section 95(1)(b) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, RSC 1985 c B-3 (“BIA”). As a result, the Court ordered the monies be repaid to the bankruptcy estate.
In a previous post, we discussed disgorgement as an alternative remedy to compensatory damages in cases where a fraudster has profited from the wrongful acts. In a recent Ontario Superior Court decision, Justice Koehnen granted a $10.2 million disgorgement order to return ill-gotten profits made by a former Canadian National Railway Company (CN) employee in breach of his fiduciary duties. This is noteworthy as most of the profits to be disgorged were gone as they been used up during the course of a long and expensive receivership.