A North Vancouver man was ordered to repay a lump sum of money to his friend after the two went to court in a bitter dispute over a loan.
Jamshid Tahmasbi was ordered by a judge to repay $70,000 he had borrowed from his friend Hossein Zandi Nia.
Nia is the owner and operator of a fast food outlet in Park Royal in which Tahmasbi had been a regular customer and eventually the two became friends.
Nia made a verbal agreement with Tahmasbi that he would loan him money on occasion and be repaid on demand with 20 per cent annual interest. But after a series of loans were not repaid, Nia took Tahmasbi to court.
Nia loaned approximately $70,000 in seven separate advances between Dec. 30, 2011, and March 1, 2012, ranging from $5,000 to $23,000.
The money was transferred from Nia's bank account into Tahmasbi's and, in one instance, Tahmasbi's daughter's account.
Tahmasbi said he had agreed the money would be used to invest in the stock market through Questrade, an online brokerage firm.
An email sent to Tahmasbi from the broker confirmed that he had opened a margin account on Jan. 3, 2012, and as of Oct. 15, 2013, a total of $65,535 had been deposited into the account and no withdrawals had been made.
But an additional email from Questrade said that as of Oct. 22, 2013, the account had a cash balance of only $1,483.20.
Tahmasbi was an undischarged bankrupt, meaning he could not borrow money from a financial institution without declaring that he was bankrupt. Tahmasbi claims that he told Nia that he was bankrupt, which Nia denied.
According to court documents, Tahmasbi claimed that more than $3,500 was paid for "expenses and services," but the rest of the money was unaccounted for.
Tahmasbi said the money had been invested in stocks that lost value and he was willing to pay for half of Nia's loss but did not have the money at the time.
Questrade monthly statements from January 2012 to July 2013, with six months worth of statements missing from the period, show money being deposited into the account but there was no record of any purchases or sales of stock.
Tahmasbi was ordered to pay back the $70,000 plus court-ordered interest and costs.
