Toronto artist says he lost $2M in stolen paintings, forged mortgage to alleged fraudster killed last week | CBC News Loaded
But since then, Alijanpour, 68, alleges Missaghi stole his life's work: 38 paintings, worth more than a million dollars combined and which took him more than 20 years to complete, according to his lawsuit. 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."
"If you were a victim of a Missaghi fraud, you were put in the unenviable position of this multi-millionaire, undischarged-bankrupt fraudster through the court system who was defending himself with the best lawyers in Toronto," said Smiley.Fraud prosecution 'no longer a public interest' CBC asked Toronto police for details about that investigation, as well as about a police report about Missaghi that Pogorelovsky says she and her late husband filed in January 2024.
Missaghi was also charged with two counts of fraud as part of an earlier joint police service investigation called Project Tic Toc in May 2006, which included mortgage fraud. He was not convicted in that case.While Missaghi was never convicted of fraud, several lawyers involved with his alleged mortgage fraud schemes have lost their licences or been suspended by the Law Society of Ontario .