Decades of alleged crimes and unresolved lawsuits
A Toronto-based artist said he lost $2 million in stolen paintings and a forged mortgage to an alleged fraudster who was killed last week in a murder-suicide.
Alijan Alijanpour, 68, claims Arash Missaghi stole 38 of his paintings worth over $1 million and orchestrated a fraudulent mortgage in his name, leaving him with a $1.2 million debt.
"I lost so much," Alijanpour said through a translator in an interview with CBC Toronto. "I have never seen such a person like him in my life."
In the deadly Toronto shooting reported last week by CMP, Missaghi and his associate Samira Yousefi were killed by Alan Kats, who then took his own life. Kats' widow, Alisa Pogorelovsky, said her husband was driven to desperation after losing their life savings in an alleged fraud involving Missaghi and Yousefi.
Kats left a note naming them and others, stating, "Stop these criminals from destroying people's lives."
Court records reveal over 20 lawsuits against Missaghi, claiming more than $90 million in damages over two decades. Despite numerous allegations, police reports, and criminal fraud charges, Missaghi was never convicted or found liable before his death.
Peter Smiley, a Toronto civil lawyer who worked on cases against Missaghi, called the tragedy the almost inevitable result of decades of institutional inaction.
“If you were a victim of a Missaghi fraud, you were put in the unenviable position of [pursuing] this multi-millionaire, undischarged-bankrupt fraudster through the court system who was defending himself with the best lawyers in Toronto,” Smiley told CBC News. “Which he is paying for with the money that he stole from you.”
Alijanpour reported the alleged theft of his paintings to Toronto police in 2019. In February 2021, a detective emailed Alijanpour to inform him that he intended to charge Missaghi with possession of property obtained by crime and extortion.
However, the case apparently stalled after the detective left the police service in June 2022.
"We cannot provide information about the deceased's past criminal history, beyond what we have released publicly," Toronto police spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said in a statement.
Missaghi had been charged with fraud in previous investigations, including Project Bridle Path in 2018 and Project Tic Toc in 2006, but was never convicted.
Read next: FSRA strips agent's license over $5.18m mortgage fraud scheme
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario confirmed Missaghi was never a licensed mortgage broker or agent and had issued a warning about him in 2020.
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