Amy Then

The Attorney General of Ontario brought a motion under the Civil Remedies Act, 2001 for an order preserving $543,515 in Canadian currency seized during a murder investigation.

The currency was found in the deceased's residence along with large quantities of controlled substances and drug trafficking paraphernalia.

The court found reasonable grounds to believe the currency was the proceeds or instrument of unlawful activity and granted the preservation order, noting no interests of justice weighed against it.

The plaintiff obtained an ex-parte Mareva injunction and an interim preservation order against the defendants, who allegedly defrauded a government COVID-19 relief program of at least $11 million.

The moving party brought a motion to vary the Mareva injunction to access frozen funds for legal and living expenses.

The court dismissed the motion, finding that the moving party failed to make full disclosure of his worldwide assets and did not discharge the onus of proving that he and his family had no other assets available to pay their expenses.