Protest by truckers: nearly $6 million seized as injunction ends

Lawyers representing Ottawa residents in the lawsuit successfully argued for a Mareva injunction on February 17, a court order aimed at restraining convoy organizers from sell, withdraw, dissipate, transfer, assign up to $20 million raised.

On Monday, Ontario Superior Court Judge, Calum MacLeodsaid the injunction would be overturned.

The judge MacLeod however, retained a receiving order ensuring that a third-party agent can continue to hold just over $5.7 million raised for the protests until lawyers decide what to do with that sum.

Paul Fieldone of the lawyers involved in the class action, said a wide net had been cast to recover funds from the convoy of truckers.

We got most of the funds we were trying to freeze nowhe explained.

More money placed in escrow in the past month

As of March 30, nearly $2 million was held by a third party, according to the latest official report from the escrow agent.

Then, on Monday, the court ordered that approximately C$3.8 million raised from the U.S. crowdfunding site GiveSendGo be transferred to escrow.

The site had transferred this money to a Canadian bank account belonging to the non-profit organization created by the organizers of the convoy of truckers. But the money was eventually recovered by a payment processing company due to freezing orders put in place in February to prevent the sum from being used by protesters.

More than 400,000 Canadian dollars in digital currencies were also transferred into escrow.

The class action should go ahead

Me Champ and his team are expected to expand the scope of the proposed class action to include thousands of defendants – including donors and more truckers involved – as they seek to reimburse downtown residents and businesses who have been affected. by the demonstration which lasted more than three weeks, paralyzing the city center.

Defendants should file their own documents before the court decides whether to certify the class action.

We have completed our efforts to find and take control of all the funds that were raised to support the convoy and that were donated primarily to allow the truckers to continue their occupation of downtown Ottawa and continue to harm the downtown Ottawa said Mr. Field.

His team hopes that the money now held by a third party will hopefully one day compensate the people of downtown Ottawa.

Most of the funds raised returned to their donors

The truckers’ rally in Ottawa raised more than $20 million in total.

Tamara Lich, the leader of the convoy who gained access to a large sum of money through her role in organizing the protest – for which she has since been charged – helped raise nearly $10.1 million before the suspension of donations.

The website used to raise this money, GoFundMethen returned most of those funds to donors beginning Feb. 5, the company said.

The nearly $1.4 million that remained in Ms. Lich’s possession was later transferred into escrow.

Two fundraisers launched on GiveSendGo raised more than $12 million and in a March 9 court appearance, the co-founder and chief financial officer of GiveSendGo, Jacob Wellssaid the donations would be returned to the donors.

Asked by CBCthe company declined to disclose the total amount refunded.

The bulk of the digital currency raised through these fundraisers – 20.7 bitcoins, which is nearly C$1.1 million – continues to elude authorities.

They seem to continue to monitor these remaining sums, but it is very difficult to say whether they will succeed in seizing them.

With information from David Fraser of The Canadian News