internationally renowned artist alian alanp has paintings on display around the world here they’ve been exhibited at the Ontario legislature and Royal Ontario Museum we spoke with Ali Jean por through a translator spiritual my work is more spiritual but lately he’s been painting more generic work like this and selling it for Less desperately trying to make money to pay off debt and lawyer fees he says he’s out nearly $2.5 million in money and paintings after his dealings with notorious alleged fraudster Arash masagi over the past two decades in Ontario around two dozen lawsuits have been filed against Mogi totaling more than $90 million all the claims haven’t been proven in court but so far two of msi’s many lawyers have lost their licenses after being accused of helping facilitate the alleged frauds and he was charged with fraud in two large investigations unrelated to the artist but was never convicted his charges from the more recent investigation were dropped the crown citing the prosecution was no longer in the public interest masagi was shot and killed earlier this month by a man who then killed himself the gunman’s Widow said that’s because he was distraught after losing $1.2 million in a Mortgage Investment scheme allegedly run by masagi she shared a note he left that said stop these criminals from destroying people’s lives Ali janur feels he’s one of them I went to so much distress and a stress I have a lawsuit Ali joh por filed against masagi says he slowly built Ali Jean’s trust by commissioning a $50,000 painting alian says masagi paid for it and a few others the suit claims masagi commissioned more than $300,000 worth of other paintings he didn’t pay for $100,000 not PID only Jean po claims masagi also told him he wanted to buy his collection of completed paintings and sell them for a profit to a museum in England according to the lawsuit masagi stole them instead Alan Po’s life’s work valued at $1.2 million I really want to take my painting back I I like those paintings same as my own children in a statement of Defense masagi denied the allegations Ali janur is also accusing masagi of orchestrating a scheme to obtain two mortgages in his name that he didn’t know about writ documents show Ali Jean por owes $ 1.2 million for one of them all my credit has been ruined I lost so much so did many others and the system is partly to blame says this lawyer the story of Mr massagi it is corrosive to the rule of law it undermines public confidence in the administration of justice Peter Smiley is Ali Jean’s former lawyer and has represented around 10 alleged victims of masagi he was able to fund his litigations with the substantial monies that he defrauded from his victims Ali Jean por filed a report about misi to Toronto police and a complaint to the Law Society about another lawyer he says helped Miss SOI carry out the mortgage scheme but nothing came of either who is responsible do go is it judge is it law is it court is it police for Smiley Mr msi’s career of fraud which ultimately culminated in the tragedy of it took place last Monday in Don Mills was the almost inevitable result of Decades of institutional inaction alleged victims are hoping they’ll be able to recover some money from msi’s estate now that he has died but lawyer Peter Smiley says it’ll take a lot to untangle that web he calls msi’s estate and has asked for the Court’s assistance with that Angelina King CBC News Toronto
Alijan Alijanpour, an internationally renowned painter of Persian miniatures, is one of at least two dozen litigants who have sued Arash Missaghi over the last 24 years for at least $90 million. Despite that, Missaghi was never convicted, sanctioned or found liable for any of his alleged serial frauds before his death. CBC’s Angelina King has more.
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