Too Good To Be True? May Be Your Wilful Blindness

This sordid tale begins with an employee going rogue with a company credit card. The Defendant Fung began purchasing iPhones and iPads from the Defendant Minetto in November 2011. The first transaction was seemingly innocent. The two met in the parking lot at Yorkdale Mall. Fung purchased one iPad from Minetto and paid in cash.

Over the course of the next 2.5 years, Minetto sold Fung over 4,900 iPhones and 5,300 iPads in increments of 10 to 20 pieces at a time. Initially, Fung and Minetto met in parking lots to exchange cash for the Apple Products. Eventually, they set up a virtual office where Minetto had Apple Inc. ship the Apple Products directly to Fung.

As it turns out, Minetto was using her employer Wescom's corporate credit card to purchase the Apple Products and then selling the Apple Products for her own personal gain. Minetto's actions went undiscovered for so long because she was the employee responsible for paying the corporate credit card invoices. In the end, Minetto defrauded her employer out of $6.8 million over 5 years. Some of her expenditures were for other unrelated personal items. Over $6.2 million was spent on Apple Products which Minetto later sold. Wescom ultimately discovered the fraud and terminated Minetto immediately.

Wescom obtained a Judgment on consent against Minetto for the full $6.8 million, plus interest. In a separate decision, Wescom was granted leave to sell Minetto's home after a Judge found that Minetto committed multiple material breaches of their settlement agreement.

Superior Court Decision

An action was brought by Wescom based on Fung's alleged unjust enrichment at the expense of Wescom. On consent, the Trial proceeded on the issues of: (1) Whether Fung knew or was wilfully blind to the fact that he was purchasing stolen goods or goods fraudulently obtained by Minetto; and, if yes (2) Did this apply to all transactions or just transactions after a certain date?

Fung admitted that he did not initially ask Minetto where or how she obtained the Apple Products. Later, he asked her if they were stolen and Minetto told him they were "legit". Fung could detect no sign that the Apple Products were stolen. He was not concerned about the cash transactions or lack of documentation for the purchase or resale of the Apple Products.

What Fung knew or ought to have known was analyzed over three distinct stages:

Stage 1: November 2011 to early 2012 - Yorkdale Mall parking lot transactions

During the initial...