Businessman wins ‘David vs. Goliath’ fight

TD refused to say why it closed his accounts

When he received the notice from Toronto-Dominion Bank six years ago, Hossein Pourshafiey says it hit him like a sledgehammer.

TD Bank, he was informed, was closing his business and personal accounts within 30 days. It was also closing his line of credit for his mortgage in two months. He needed to repay the bank $767,000.

All of this was made clear in writing. The reason behind the bank’s decision wasn’t.

Pourshafiey, 66, scrambled to find a solution. He sought out answers with his local branch manager and the bank’s head office, but again never received a response.

As a last resort, he took legal action. He knew it was a “David versus Goliath” situation, but also believed he was owed an explanation — the bank had upended his life.

After a six-year legal battle, a Quebec Superior Court sided with Pourshafiey in July, ordering TD Bank to pay him $49,000 in damages and $27,000 to cover his legal fees.

“TD Bank acted in its own interest, without considering the effect on Mr. Pourshafiey’s business and his life,” Judge Gregory Moore wrote in his July 20 decision. “Had Mr. Pourshafiey not sued, he would never have learned why TD Bank turned his life upside down.”

Pourshafiey’s company, Moneywise Financial, had operated as a currency exchange business in Montreal since 1998. With Pourshafiey’s ties to Montreal’s Iranian community, he says, it was often used by families in Iran to wire money to their children studying in the city.

In court, the bank eventually explained it ordered the account closures because it wasn’t comfortable with transactions conducted with Iran in February 2012, given Canada’s economic sanctions in place at the time. But it only revealed its reasons on the second-to-last day of trial, six years after Pourshafiey first asked.

Pourshafiey maintains he was aware of the sanctions in place and never violated any of them. He claims several Iranians in Montreal had similar difficulties with their banks in 2012 over unfounded concerns that they were violating the sanctions. He sought punitive damages for alleged discrimination based on his Iranian heritage, but the court ruled there was no evidence to support the claim.