4 Birchmount Road

4 Birchmount Road, a vacant, detached two-storey home in Toronto, Ontario, was placed in receivership on April 13 on application by B & M Handelman Investments et al., owed approximately $900.0M. The funds were initially advanced to Christine Drotos and secured by a second mortgage against the property. When Drotos failed to repay the funds when the mortgage matured, Ara Missaghi offered to purchase the applicants' loan. This transaction was never completed. Instead Missaghi made partial payments on the mortgage. In addition, Missaghi represented that he was continuing to service the first mortgage on the property, which was owing to Pillar Capital Corporation (not to be confused with Pillar Capital Corp. out of Calgary, Alberta), a lender which appears to be owned or controlled by Missaghi. A recent mortgage statement provided to the applicants by Pillar, however, did not reflect any credit for the interest payments which Missaghi allegedly made. Concerned that Missaghi may have inflated the amounts claimed to be due and owing pursuant to the first mortgage in an attempt to prejudice their recovery under the second mortgage, the applicants' moved to appoint a receiver to sort through the various encumbrances registered against the property. Rosen Goldberg was appointed receiver. Dickinson Wright is counsel for the applicants.