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by Mike Caswell

South African geologist George van Aswegen, has won an order in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against PI Financial Corp. for losses he suffered in a fraud that targeted his account. Mr. van Aswegen claimed that PI allowed somebody to take control of his account and transfer out the balance. He claimed that the firm was negligent, and pointed out that there had been a prior attempt to access his account.

The payout for Mr. van Aswegen is set out in an order handed down on Friday, Aug. 16. A judge has ordered PI to pay Mr. van Aswegen $389,455, plus $41,475 in interest. The firm must also pay Mr. van Aswegen his court costs.

Friday's order comes over three years after Mr. van Aswegen sued PI, filing a notice of claim on Jan. 25, 2021, at the Vancouver courthouse. The problem, as set out by Mr. van Aswegen, went back to November, 2015, when somebody attempted to access his account. At the time, his account was still at Wolverton Securities Ltd. (which PI later acquired) and the firm contacted him to advise him of the issue. The attempt was unsuccessful, and Mr. van Aswegen says that he directed Wolverton to contact him immediately if somebody made another such attempt.

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