Murder, Suicide And Interim Suspension

November 18, 2024

An interlocutory suspension has been imposed on two lawyers by the Ontario Law Society Hearing Division for their alleged involvement in a scheme that had led to murder, suicide and allegations of financial ruin.

Mr. Mazaheri and Mr. Yack are lawyers. They acted in transactions in which Alicia Pogorelovsky is alleged to have been defrauded. The Law Society’s position is that the licences of both lawyers should be suspended while the Law Society investigates and, depending on the result of the investigation, brings a conduct application in respect of their conduct. The Law Society seeks an interlocutory suspension to protect the public and the public interest.

Allegations

1. In 2022, Ms. Pogorelovsky and her late husband were interested in investing in mortgages. With the assistance of Ms. Yousefi, a real estate broker, Ms. Pogorelovsky borrowed $1,375,000 in order to make investments in mortgages on real property.

2. Ms. Yousefi recommended that Ms. Pogorelovsky invest $850,000 in a syndicated first mortgage loan and $400,000 in a private first mortgage loan.

3. These monies were instead used by Mr. Missaghi through two companies that he controlled, to acquire outstanding mortgage interests in a property that was owned by another company that he controlled. The Law Society of Ontario knows Mr. Missaghi as a fraudster.

4. Mr. Yack and Mr. Mazaheri were involved as lawyers in the transactions and acted with at least constructive knowledge of the fraud

A complication

In June 2024, Ms. Pogorelovsky’s late husband Vadim (Alan) Kats killed Mr. Missaghi and Ms. Yousefi and then killed himself. Their evidence is not available nor was information obtained from them by the Law Society prior to their deaths.

Yack

We conclude that there are reasonable grounds for believing that Mr. Yack reviewed and commented on the mortgage commitment documents shown to him by Ms. Pogorelovsky on November 15, 2022 and that, given his prior knowledge of the Hymus property and its ownership, he would have recognized that the proposed syndicated mortgage transaction did not make sense. We conclude that there are reasonable grounds for believing that Mr. Yack received the $850,000 in November 2022 from Mr. Mazaheri knowing that the money came from Ms. Pogorelovsky and was being used for purposes other than intended by her.

Mazaheri

As for Mr. Mazaheri, we also conclude that an interlocutory suspension should be ordered. While Mr. Mazaheri submits that, at most, he should not be permitted to operate a trust account, we conclude that interlocutory restrictions on his ability to operate a trust account are not sufficient to mitigate the risk of harm to members of the public. We find that Mr. Mazaheri’s integrity has been materially impugned: Law Society of Ontario v. Qureshi, 2019 ONLSTH 57 at para. 31.

The Law Society’s position is that Mr. Mazaheri was wilfully blind to the fraud on Ms. Pogorelovsky. In this regard, the evidence that Mr. Mazaheri was aware of Mr. Missaghi’s history is notable as is the fact that Mr. Mazaheri was not experienced in syndicated mortgage transactions and had limited real involvement with the transaction. It is also reasonably possible that Mr. Mazaheri merely failed to be on guard of being used as a tool or dupe and is now seeking to establish authority for acting that he did not have at the time.

On the evidence before us, it is difficult to be confident regarding what actually happened. But absent evidence from Mr. Mazaheri, whose position effectively is that only he can really say what happened given the deaths of Mr. Kats, Ms. Yousefi and Mr. Missaghi, we conclude that an interlocutory suspension is necessary pending the completion of the Law Society investigation and any resulting conduct application.

The present order substitutes for a previously imposed interim interlocutory suspension.

The Toronto Star had a detailed story about the underlying web of alleged deceit

Missaghi stood charged in what police had called a “sophisticated and complex mortgage fraud investigation” with fraud exceeding $5,000, conspiracy to commit an indictable offence and being an accessory after the fact to an indictable offence.

“I’m sort of running out of patience, gentleman,” the judge told Missaghi and the other accused, threatening to move forward, while warning them about the serious consequences if they were found guilty.

“One way or another, your trial is going on.”

It didn’t.

Ten days later, the Crown would withdraw all charges with little explanation.

On Monday, Missaghi and his associate, Samira Yousefi, a mortgage agent, were killed. Gunman Alan Kats had entered the office where they worked at 25 Mallard Rd. in North York. An argument ensued and Missaghi, 54, and Yousefi, 44, were shot dead. Then, Kats turned the gun on himself, his wife said.

In the wake of these violent, tragic events that left three people dead and their loved ones grieving, Kats’ widow, Alisa Pogorelovsky, told the Star that her husband had blamed Missaghi and others for his despair. He had blamed them, she said, for the loss of his family’s life savings.

The web had ensnared others

Missaghi’s associates over the years included a rookie lawyer who fled the country with only yoga pants, purses and $5,000 cash stuffed into a bag, only to be replaced by another young lawyer Missaghi recruited who he would go on to level death threats against. Both eventually lost their licences to practise for their dealings involving Missaghi.

“This was an extremely intelligent, extremely adept manipulator of young professionals like mortgage brokers, lawyers, particularly when they are starting out in the profession, they are uncertain about their role,” said lawyer Peter Smiley, a litigation partner at Berkow Youd Lev-Farrell Das LLP who represented several clients suing Missaghi.

“They are very susceptible to manipulation by somebody like this.”

The revocation order of the yoga pants lawyer is linked here.

She also was the subject of a detailed Toronto Star story.

Within a month of her abrupt departure, Vakili would be named in a massive civil suit alleging she was a central figure in a sophisticated mortgage scheme investors believe could be worth as much as $17 million. The courts froze her accounts and the law society suspended her licence. Then Toronto police charged her with fraud in absentia and issued a warrant for her arrest.

This is a story about missing millions, stately mansions on the Bridle Path, broken business relationships and an alleged death threat. It features a cast of characters operating in the world of real estate and private loans. Among them is Vakili, a promising young lawyer now on the lam; a businessman who bought the largest home in Canada and who in the past has been charged with several violent crimes though never convicted; his former business associate — a wealthy woman who accuses both of them of defrauding her family — and a shell-shocked husband searching for answers.

Other ensnared and sanctioned attorney orders are linked here and here and here.

CBC Toronto also had a detailed story on the alleged crimes of Missaghi.

CBC Toronto reviewed hundreds of pages of court records and found two dozen lawsuits against Missaghi and others claiming more than $90 million over 20 years, as well as police reports, criminal fraud charges and that two of Missaghi’s lawyers had lost their licences. Despite all this, Missaghi was never convicted, sanctioned or found liable of any of his alleged serial frauds before his death.

Peter Smiley, a Toronto civil lawyer who started working on cases against Missaghi in 2018, said last week’s tragedy “was the almost-inevitable result of decades of institutional inaction.”

“These are criminal matters which, by virtue of the inaction of the police and the inaction of the Crown, have been forced into the civil justice system,” he said.

(Mike Frisch)

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Bar Discipline & Process