Court freezes assets of former SFU manager

A judge has frozen the assets of a former SFU manager who is alleged to have misappropriated more than $800,000 of the Burnaby university’s funds.

On Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Richard Goepel granted the injunction against Siamak Saidi during a brief appearance by a lawyer for Simon Fraser University. The order affects three properties that Saidi is alleged to have purchased with the funds as well as any other assets he might have.

Court heard that Saidi was arrested by RCMP on Tuesday and remains in custody. An appearance for him in Vancouver Provincial Court Friday was adjourned until Monday. He faces charges of fraud over $5,000, theft over $5,000, forgery and using forged documents.

Saidi is now on leave from his current job as manager of financial services at the Cultus Lake Park Board, where for the past year he has overseen the board’s $4 million budget.

Ronald Campbell, the board’s chief administration officer, said that on Wednesday staff did a “thorough review” of all of the financial institutions the board works with and didn’t find anything abnormal.

The Burnaby university claims that Saidi, while employed as director of finance for the science faculty, prepared and submitted to SFU for payment more than 500 invoices from companies in which he was a director.

The money paid out was then used by Saidi to buy three properties — in Burnaby, Belcarra and Abbotsford — according to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver.

Saidi was employed by SFU prior to June 2010 until his termination in January 2012, when his job became redundant as a result of restructuring.

A new manager who took over his job noticed irregularities in the accounts, court documents state.

A civil claim contains allegations that have not been proven in court.