A month-long ban against Freedom Convoy organizers ended on Monday, but lawyers responsible for silencing incessant signals in February are focused on expanding and certifying a proposed class action to ensure that Ottawa residents and businesses are compensated.
Lawyers representing Ottawa residents in the proposed lawsuit against convoy protesters successfully argued for Mareva’s February 17 order, a court order aimed at restricting convoy leaders from “selling, removing, distracting, alienating, transferring, transferring “Up to $ 20 million in assets grown worldwide.
On Monday, Ontario Supreme Court Justice Callam McLeod said the order would be revoked.
McLeod complied with an escrow order guaranteeing that a third-party agent could continue to hold just over $ 5.7 million raised by the convoy protests while lawyers decided what would happen to the money.
Paul Champ, one of the lawyers involved in the proposed class action lawsuit, initially said that a wide network had been launched to capture funds from the freedom convoy.
“We got most of the money we were trying to freeze now,” he said.
Lawyer Paul Champ hopes residents and businesses in downtown Ottawa will be compensated for the convoy’s protests through a proposed class action lawsuit. (CBC)
More money deposited in the depository in the last month
As of March 30, nearly $ 2 million in assets had been held by a third party, according to the escrow agent’s latest official report.
Then on Monday, the court ordered about $ 3.8 million in Cdn raised on the US-based crowdfunding site GiveSendGo to be transferred to escrow.
The site transferred the money to a Canadian bank account owned by the non-profit corporation set up by the organizers. Instead, the money was held by a payment processing company due to freezing orders issued in February to prevent protesters from using the money.
Digital currencies worth more than $ 400,000 Cdn have also been moved to escrow.
Suggested costume for group action to move forward
Champ and his team are expected to expand the proposed class action lawsuit to include thousands of defendants – including donors and more truck drivers involved – as they seek to recoup the costs of residents and businesses at the center.
Defendants will then file their own materials before the court decides whether to certify the class action.
“We have completed our efforts to track and gain control of all funds donated to help truckers, which were donated in substance, to enable truck drivers to continue their occupation of downtown Ottawa and continue the damage. from downtown Ottawa, “said the champion
His team hopes the money now in deposit “hopes to one day go to compensate people in downtown Ottawa.”
Most of the money raised for the convoy went back to the donors
The protest of the convoy in Ottawa raised more than 20 million dollars for his three-week stay in the city center.
Tamara Leach, the leader of the convoy, who had access to a significant amount of money through her role in organizing the protest – for which she has since been accused – helped raise nearly $ 10.1 million before the donations were stopped.
The website used to raise the money, GoFundMe, then returned most of that money to the original donors on Feb. 5, the company said.
Nearly $ 1.4 million, which remained in Leach’s possession, was then deposited.
Two fundraising campaigns launched at GiveSendGo raised more than $ 12 million, and during a lawsuit on March 9, GiveSendGo co-founder and chief financial officer Jacob Wells said the donations would be returned to donors.
At the request of the CBC, the company declined to disclose the total amount recovered.
Most of the digital currency raised as part of the fundraising for the convoy – 20.7 bitcoins (worth almost $ 1.1 million Cdn) – continues to escape the authorities.
Authorities are believed to be monitoring the remaining bitcoin, but it remains unclear whether they will be able to capture it.
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