The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group Society, a non-profit set up by the Kwantlen Student Association, is suing former director Richard Hossein for allegedly defrauding the society out of thousands of dollars.
The society filed a notice of civil claim in BC Supreme Court on March 23. According to the claim, the student association set up the society as “a student-funded and student-directed resource organization dedicated to advancing social and environmental justice.”
Hossein was a founding board member and “prominent participant in student politics at Kwantlen Polytechnic University,” the society claims.
In mid-2014, Hossein resigned as a society director but was kept on as an administrative co-ordinator. In 2017, Hossein allegedly told the plaintiff’s board of directors that the society had an agreement with a firm called CPGA Consulting. The firm received payments from the society totalling more than $22,000 in 2017, but was “not a professional consultancy” and was owned by Hossein.
In addition, the society paid out more than $7,000 for shelving units to a company that allegedly doesn’t exist, at Hossein’s behest. In July 2017, Hossein received more than $56,000 in unauthorized severance payments after presenting a memo to the society’s bookkeeper “drafted to resemble meeting minutes of the board which purportedly authorized the payments to the defendant.”
In an open letter posted online, the society claims Hossein misappropriated approximately $111,000 and the matter is allegedly under investigation by the RCMP.
The Kwantlen Public Interest Research Group Society seeks damages for fraud and unjust enrichment. The allegations have not been tested or proven in court, and Hossein had not filed a response by press time.
