A lawsuit accusing two former Ford government staffers of fraud has been discontinued.
None of the parties involved would comment on whether or not they reached a monetary settlement.
Late last year, a group of landowners alleged in a lawsuit that the two former staffers were paid to use “their backchannel contacts and political connections” to get three properties rezoned for development, but did not follow through on the deal.
One of the former staffers is Ryan Amato, the former chief of staff to Ontario’s then-housing minister, who the province’s integrity commissioner described as the ”driving force” behind the Ford government’s short-lived removal of land from the Greenbelt.
The other is Shiv Raj, a former longtime premier’s office staffer who recently worked on the Progressive Conservatives’ re-election campaign helping manage Doug Ford’s tour.
The Frontier Group of Companies and two of its executives were also named as defendants.
A lawyer for Amato and Raj denied the allegations in February. Their lawyer and Frontier Group’s promised they would defend themselves against the lawsuit, but ultimately didn’t submit any statements of defence to the court before the plaintiffs ended it last month.
In Ontario’s legal system, settlements are not automatically disclosed. Lawyers for Amato, Raj, their co-defendants and the plaintiffs declined to comment on whether or not there was a monetary settlement or any agreement concerning the allegations at issue.
Lawyers for both groups of defendants each provided an identical statement that did not answer The Trillium’s questions about its closure: “A Notice of Discontinuance has been filed by the plaintiffs and they will no longer be advancing the litigation.”
The allegations remained unknown to the public until a week into this year’s provincial election, when The Trillium found the court filings through a routine court records search. The suit briefly shook up the recent Ontario election campaign.
The lawsuit was filed by Amanpreet Jakhar and two numbered companies. They bought three properties in Oakville, London and Grimsby between 2019 and 2022 for more than $7.5 million, intending to rezone them to allow development, according to their statement of claim.
Jakhar and the other landowners alleged they approached “their acquaintance” Raj in mid-2023 for help with rezoning the properties, “given his extensive business network and role as executive director of operations for the office of (the) premier.”
Their claim said Raj introduced them to the Frontier Group and Amato that summer, reaching a written agreement with the Frontier Group and “an oral agreement” with Raj and Amato in August 2023. It also said that, “in order to conceal their involvement,” Amato and Raj would be paid monthly by Frontier Group, which the landowners paid up to almost $190,000.
Reflecting on one meeting, the plaintiffs’ lawsuit said Amato and Raj “falsely represented … that they had the experience and expertise to assist in obtaining a rezoning of the properties and they would work with Frontier Group, using their backchannel contacts and political connections to facilitate and secure rezoning approvals for the properties.”
According to the plaintiffs’ statement of claim, Amato and Raj said they could get the properties rezoned within five to eight months, and the Frontier Group said rezoning the land was a “routine task.”
However, the landowners alleged this was a “malicious, high-handed and dishonest” conspiracy. They claimed the group got them to sign a contract “on the false pretence of obtaining rezoning approvals of the properties in order to enrich themselves at the plaintiffs' expense.”
The plaintiffs’ statement of claim also added that “none of the defendants are or were registered with the provincial lobbyist registry,” even though the agreements with Frontier Group stated that the company would register on behalf of the plaintiffs.
In total, the plaintiffs said they paid Frontier Group about $1.5 million. The properties have not been rezoned.
“Each of Shiv, Ryan, David and Anthony have been unjustly enriched … and each knowingly received directly, or indirectly through Frontier Group or each other, the plaintiff funds which were procured by fraud,” the statement of claim alleged.
The landowners sought $2 million “for negligence, breach of contract, negligent misrepresentation, fraudulent misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, conspiracy” and related causes of action, plus punitive damages.
The period when the plaintiffs alleged their agreements with the defendants began was a turbulent time for the Ford government.
Ontario’s auditor general released her damning Greenbelt report on Aug. 9, 2023. Amato resigned as chief of staff to then-housing minister Steve Clark less than two weeks later. Clark resigned about two weeks later, days after the integrity commissioner’s office released the findings from its own Greenbelt investigation.
Ford apologized for the land removals on Sept. 21, 2023. His government spent the next few months undoing them. That fall, the RCMP revealed it was investigating whether there was a criminal element behind the Greenbelt changes. Its investigation is still ongoing.
When The Trillium first broke the news of the lawsuit in February, a spokesperson for the premier said he’d been unaware of it.
“The premier is unaware of this lawsuit, and the province has no involvement in it nor has it ever considered any changes to these properties,” said Grace Lee.
When asked at a campaign event if he believed that his government had created a culture where backroom dealing is seen as a way to get ahead — as the opposition parties charged — he denied it.
"Absolutely not," Ford said. "Doesn't happen. Anything happens like that, they're fired instantly. I don't play those games. I focus on taking care of the people."
