Our client, the subsidiary of an internationally-known auction house, loaned a substantial amount to fund a Toronto businessman’s purchase of exotic art pieces. The businessman defaulted on the loan. Court proceedings took place in a federal court in the United States. Our client recovered a large judgment which had little value in the US because the businessman resided in Canada. Our client turned to us to enforce the judgment. Achieving our client’s objective required development of an effective strategy to prevent the defendant from disposing of his substantial Canadian assets before we could turn the US judgment into an Ontario judgment. We quietly researched the defendant’s business affairs and registered certificates of pending litigation against property he had transferred to business associates without valuable consideration. In the ensuing legal proceedings, the defendant claimed that he had no assets. The business associates claimed that they were the owners of the properties. However, we did not relent. As a result of our strategy and ensuing negotiations, a settlement was reached which paid nearly all of our client’s substantial judgment. Igor Ellyn and Evelyn Perez Youssoufian are the authors of the Canada Chapter of Enforcement of Money Judgments, an internationally-recognized textbook published by Juris Publishing.
