Court declines to discharge B.C. man from bankruptcy, citing his ‘extravagant lifestyle’

The University of British Columbia campus is seen in this aerial shot. (UBC)

A B.C. man who owes his creditors more than $6.8 million has lost his bid to be discharged from bankruptcy.

The court agreed with Sebastien Sirois’ bankruptcy trustee that there were outstanding questions about how Sirois has maintained his “extravagant lifestyle” since declaring himself bankrupt in 2024.

In a decision issued Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Associate Judge John Bilawich concluded there were “numerous unresolved issues,” relevant documents yet to be produced and unanswered questions about Sirois’ finances. Bilawich dismissed Sirois’ application for discharge, but allowed for him to reapply after one year.

Litigation in Quebec and Martinique

The largest of Sirois’ debts stems from a judgment against him in the Quebec Court of Appeal, in a case brought against him by Kevin Richer.

The specific reasons for that judgment are not repeated in Bilawich’s decision, which only notes that the litigation stemmed from Sirois’ involvement with Richer’s toy manufacturing business, Wooky Entertainment Inc.

The Quebec court ordered Sirois—along with three companies he owned or controlled—to pay Richer $4.85 million, plus interest and costs.

After the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear further appeal on the matter, Richer petitioned the B.C. court to assign Sirois into bankruptcy in March 2024. Sirois instead did so himself in April of that same year, according to Bilawich’s decision.

The decision indicates Richer and Sirois are also involved in ongoing litigation in the French Caribbean territory of Martinique, with Sirois accusing Richer of conspiracy, forgery and defamation in that jurisdiction.

Originally from Quebec, Sirois has lived in Vancouver since 2017. Before that, he spent a decade living overseas, primarily in Thailand, where he ran a garment manufacturing business through various companies he owned, including Neon Buddha Ltd., Pure & Co. Ltd. and Georgie & Lou Co., among others, according to the decision.

Trustee’s objections

The trustee appointed to oversee Sirois’ bankruptcy objected to his petition for discharge, telling the court that Sirois had “brought on or contributed to” his bankruptcy and failed to perform the duties required of him as a bankrupt person—chiefly disclosing all of his property and turning it over to the trustee.

Specifically, the trustee told the court it had reason to believe Sirois is the owner or beneficiary of undisclosed bank and investment accounts, his luxury home near the University of British Columbia, a luxury yacht in the Caribbean and the corporation that owns the vessel.

Regarding the bank accounts, Sirois told the trustee he had closed them, but did not say when he had done so, according to the decision. He also claimed to have taken steps to get the five years’ worth of bank statements the trustee requested, but no such statements had been produced as of the time of the trustee’s report to the court.

In the case of the investment accounts, Sirois first told the trustee he had closed them, then later denied having them in the first place, the court decision indicates.

Richer told the trustee he had learned through Quebec court proceedings that Sirois had previously had investment accounts in the United States, and the trustee is “taking steps to investigate the bankrupt’s accounts outside of Canada,” according to the decision.

$8,000 rental in $11 million home

Bilawich’s decision notes multiple allegations from the trustee regarding the “extravagant lifestyle” Sirois has purportedly maintained since filing for bankruptcy.

Central to this allegation is Sirois’ living arrangement. He and his wife rent a home on Newton Wynd on University Endowment Lands near UBC that has a 2026 assessed value of more than $11.4 million, according to BC Assessment.

Newton Wynd is home to no fewer than 17 of the 500 most valuable residential properties in all of B.C., including three of the top 50.

The home Sirois rents is owned by Yuhui Frederick Sung, a Chinese national from Hong Kong who purchased it for more than $17 million in 2017. Sirois and his wife told the trustee they pay approximately $8,000 a month in rent on the property.

When they first moved to the Vancouver area, Sirois and his wife lived in a condo she owned, also on University Endowment Lands. That property was sold in 2017 and the couple moved to their current address, according to the court decision.

“The trustee says the evidence it has obtained raises questions regarding whether the bankrupt may have an undisclosed financial interest in the Newton property,” the decision reads.

“During her examination, Ms. Sirois said that around the time that she and the bankrupt moved to Vancouver and when she sold her condo, Neon (Sirois’ company) was in financial difficulties and needed money. The trustee characterizes her explanation as confusing, because an individual would not be expected to upsize from a condo to a $17 million luxury home at a time when their company was going through financial difficulty.”

The trustee also noted that shortly after Sirois filed for bankruptcy, a new mortgage worth nearly $21 million was taken out against the Newton property and one other property, though it provided the court with no evidence linking Sirois to that mortgage or to any relationship between Sirois and Sung beyond that of tenant and landlord.

Bilawich found the trustee’s evidence of Sirois’ purported ownership interest in the Newton property unpersuasive, but noted the family’s ability to pay for the cost of living there as an “unresolved concern.”

Sirois said his wife has been taking care of the household’s expenses during his bankruptcy, but evidence as to how she could afford to do this was lacking, according to the decision.

“During her examination, she mentioned generating cash income at the Richmond Night Market in the summer 2024 and occasional cooking opportunities in addition to that,” the decision reads.

“However, that was clearly not sufficient to cover the apparent family expenses. Rent for the Newton property alone is just over $8,000 per month. During her examination, she mentioned having to make a vehicle lease payment of $700-800 per month. Utilities are not quantified. Food, clothing and other normal expenses for a family with two school-age children, residing in Vancouver, are presumably significant.”

In his defence, Sirois told the court the home is in poor condition, and the vast majority of the assessed value is for the land, not the structure.

“At the time his family moved in, it appeared that it had not been renovated since about the 1960s,” the decision reads. “He also emphasizes they had six people living there, including his family of four, his wife’s eldest son and her father.”

Sirois also claimed that his wife had invested the proceeds from the sale of the condo, and those funds were now providing the family with income to cover its expenses. Bilawich noted that this assertion contradicts what Sirois’ wife told the trustee about the condo proceeds going to Neon.

Travel and a luxury catamaran

Since declaring bankruptcy, Sirois has travelled outside Canada several times, including flying “first/business class on at least one occasion,” the trustee alleged, as quoted in the court decision.

He has taken trips to Vietnam, the United States and Martinique, according to the trustee, which told the court he spent his visits to the latter cruising on a luxury catamaran called the Mia.

The vessel—which is a model that can retail for as much as US$1 million, according to the decision—was registered to a company called Sustainable Investment Ltd., which Sirois incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2009.

In 2017, he transferred his shares to his wife’s ex-husband, a Thai national named Karn Limpananont who still resides in Thailand and does not speak English, according to Bilawich’s decision.

“Immediately after the bankrupt transferred his shares to Mr. Limpananont, via a director’s resolution dated February 3, 2017, the directors authorized the bankrupt to ‘manage the financial affairs of Sustainable, including opening bank accounts, investment accounts and to make investment decisions on behalf of the company,’” the decision reads.

Limpananont and Doreenda Monsura, a Filipina woman who worked for Sirois in Thailand, were the directors of Sustainable at the time.

The resolution and the connections between Sirois and the directors of Sustainable led the trustee to suspect that Sirois remains the de facto owner of the company and, by extension, the yacht. Bilawich agreed with this suggestion, noting in his decision that Sirois “appears to have retained effective control of the company.”

For his part, Sirois denied this, telling the court Limpananont gave him “a limited power of attorney” that has since been terminated. He said he has no ownership interest or control over Sustainable, which no longer owns the Mia or any other assets and is in the process of liquidation.

Sirois told the court he has continued to be responsible for maintenance of Limpananont’s yacht—a phrase Bilawich interpreted as meaning the Mia—through his company Yacht Fleet Solution. Sirois started the venture in 2022 and told the trustee had not generated any income through it. Nevertheless, he told the court he intends to return to the yacht business once his litigation with Richer is resolved.

Sirois’ arguments

Bilawich’s decision describes the issues in dispute over Sirois’ bankruptcy as “numerous,” “complex” and “vigorously contested.”

Sirois objected to the trustee’s use of “allegedly” throughout its report, telling the court such allegations do not qualify as admissible evidence, and arguing that the available documentary evidence should weigh in favour of discharging him from bankruptcy.

He also alleged that the process that led to the trustee’s appointment was compromised, that Richer should not have been allowed to participate in the bankruptcy process as an “inspector” because of the crimes Sirois accused him of in Martinique, and that Richer or someone acting on his behalf “appears to be sharing confidential files across separate cases.”

In response to each of these allegations, Bilawich noted that Sirois had not made any application to the court to address the issue, whether by removing the trustee or Richer from the proceedings or by seeking relief for the alleged breaches of confidentiality.

Regarding Sirois’ concerns about the trustee’s evidence, or lack thereof, Bilawich was similarly dismissive.

“Read in context, some statements made in the report are expressly stated as being tentative in nature, largely because some issues addressed have not yet been fully investigated and/or are the subject of pending litigation in a foreign jurisdiction,” the decision reads. “That some of the trustee’s inquiries are incomplete is understandable considering that the relevant assets, records and individuals are scattered across several jurisdictions.”

“It appears the trustee’s focus on Mr. Sirois’ extravagant lifestyle is primarily raised in an effort to highlight the discrepancy between him claiming to have no income during the course of the bankruptcy and no non-exempt assets, and the lifestyle he and his family have been able to maintain since he became bankrupt,” the decision continues.

“He suggests that his wife has been bearing the financial burden, however, the available evidence regarding her financial circumstances falls short of answering concerns about how she is managing to manage this. Mr. Sirois has not provided a breakdown of his and his family’s living expenses, so it is a challenge to carry out a fully considered analysis, but the parts of the picture which are visible are sufficient to leave one with serious questions.”

Ultimately, these questions led Bilawich to conclude that Sirois should not be granted a discharge from his bankruptcy.

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