Crimson-JH Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Uh oh… Prab Rai is in serious trouble.. Who remembered him? Judge freezes assets of former Canuck draft pick facing $2.8-million fraud allegation Lawsuit states Prab Rai, a fifth-round pick in the 2008 NHL draft, held himself out to be a successful and wealthy business person. Keith Fraser Aug 29, 2022 • 6 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation Canucks' prospect Prab Rai in 2010. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO /Vancouver Sun A B.C. judge has frozen the assets of a former Vancouver Canucks draft pick who is being sued over allegations he defrauded a realtor of more than $2.8 million. Story continues below Harpreet Singh Khela, the realtor, claims that Prab Rai, a fifth-round pick in the 2008 NHL draft, held himself out to be a successful and wealthy business person, purporting to have important connections with prominent local and international business people and retired hockey players. Canucks’ prospect Prab Rai at training camp in 2009. Photo by Jason Payne /PROVINCE He says that Rai provided to him phoney emails, financial statements, agreements and documents from those prominent business people and retired professional hockey players in order to fraudulently induce him to transfer more than $2.8 million for real estate developments and other investments. The alleged schemes included a San Diego development property, a Tim Hortons franchise, and the purchase of the Sutton Hotel in Vancouver. Story continues below Khela claims that Rai convinced him to advance $2.4 million as a deposit to buy the hotel for $200 million. Another alleged scheme involved Rai telling Khela that a prominent former Canuck player was interested in purchasing commercial real estate located in Alberta that Khela held shares in. Khela claims that starting in 2017 and continuing to about October 2020, Rai told him that they had earned significant profits from their purported ventures and then concealed the fraud by telling him a false story that the profits had been frozen by the U.S. government and were unavailable. He claimed that in October 2020, Khela was told that Rai had been kidnapped on his way to the airport, beaten and robbed of his hard drive, which contained all of his bank account information, and that all of his money was gone. Story continues below Following the “fantastical'” kidnapping story, Khela says he began to investigate his business dealings with Rai and discovered the alleged fraud. “Prab Rai’s stories to Khela about the profits earned by their business ventures were a lie. There are no profits, and there were no IRS investigations or frozen accounts,” says the lawsuit. “Prab Rai told these false stories for the purpose of preventing Khela from commencing legal proceedings to trace and recover the funds that he advanced to Prab Rai.” Rai, a junior hockey star out of Surrey, signed a contract with the Canucks in 2010, but his hockey career was sidelined due to injuries he suffered in a car accident, according to media reports. In his response filed in court, Rai said that over the course of many years, Khela had actively attempted to ingratiate himself with Rai and involve, or associate himself with, Rai’s legitimate business pursuits. Story continues below “The plaintiff’s efforts were motivated by the plaintiff’s considerable financial aspirations, lack of independent financial resources, and indebtedness to third parties,” says the response. “When Mr. Rai sought to limit his involvement with the plaintiff, the plaintiff, in an effort to forestall his own creditors, began making a series of sweeping, unfounded allegations against Mr. Rai and, still further, Mr. Rai’s immediate family members.” The lawyers representing Rai later withdrew from the case. Rai, who told the judge in the asset case that he owed his lawyers $80,000, could not be reached for comment. Prab Rai makes a big hit on Calgary Flames’ Lance Bouma during pre-season action at Rogers Arena in 2010. Photo by Steve Bosch /PNG After the lawsuit was filed, Khela went to court and sought an order freezing Rai’s assets. In her ruling on the case, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick noted that the only substantive assets of Rai are two Lamborghini luxury vehicles with a combined value of about $1.2 million. Story continues below She concluded that the legal test had been made to order the freezing of the assets and found there was a real risk of dissipation of those assets. The judge ordered that Rai provide a list of his assets and not dispose of them. Several of Rai’s family members, including his brother, who is a former RCMP officer, are also named as defendants and have filed documents denying they were involved in any fraudulent activity. An amended lawsuit was filed in September 2021. The judge’s ruling was given orally in October 2021, with a written copy of that ruling attached to the court file. A 15-day trial is scheduled to begin in January 2024. https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/judge-freezes-assets-of-former-canuck-draft-pick-facing-2-8-million-fraud-allegation 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smashian Kassian Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Theres a name I haven't heard in awhile. This is a little more wild story than I was expecting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Canuck #12 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 I'd almost forgotten about the Prabster! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post D-Money Posted August 30, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted August 30, 2022 It never fails to amaze me how stupid some people can be with their money. I mean, giving $2M to this guy…why? Because he made it to the AHL? 3 3 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NHL'er Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 5 minute major for getting speared in the b*lls 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bb83 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 canucks legend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Mad Bro? Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Hopefully he goes to prison for a very long time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzle Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 I heard about this story a long while ago. Don't know why he thought he could get away with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 57 minutes ago, Dazzle said: I heard about this story a long while ago. Don't know why he thought he could get away with it. because he found someone gullible enough to listen to him, unfortunately. Its amazing how often people with money are willing to spend big dollars on BS. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kloubek Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 2 hours ago, You Mad Bro? said: Hopefully he goes to prison for a very long time Yeah, but he won't, because Canada. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
You Mad Bro? Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 57 minutes ago, kloubek said: Yeah, but he won't, because Canada. True story Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SID.IS.SID.ME.IS.ME Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Surprised there’s no mention of Rai’s failed clothing company, “Joseph Chanan.” (There was quite a lot of press years ago about Rai’s tailored clothing for “hockey butts,” with many local hockey writers providing free advertising for the company, in the form of articles on Rai and his life after hockey.) Corporate records still list the complainant in this case (Harpreet Singh Khela), his wife (Kamaljit Khela), Prab Rai, and his father (Harbhajan Rai) as the directors of that corporation, dating back to 2013. Seems like Khela and Rai have been in business together for quite some time and on numerous ventures, and that their family members have also been involved. What a mess. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
250Integra Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 That Prabrai wasn’t a good idea… 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Heffy Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, You Mad Bro? said: Hopefully he goes to prison for a very long time Not happening in a country where people who work with children get probation for CP possession. Edited August 30, 2022 by King Heffy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GB5 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Will be interesting to see how this pans out. If I recall Rai was a speedster who was thought to have a chance to carve out a niche as a bottom 6 or AHL journeyman but neither of those panned out. The trial date of Jan 2024 is a long way away. Seems that it takes a long time for things to get to court these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewbieCanuckFan Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 1 hour ago, GB5 said: Will be interesting to see how this pans out. If I recall Rai was a speedster who was thought to have a chance to carve out a niche as a bottom 6 or AHL journeyman but neither of those panned out. The trial date of Jan 2024 is a long way away. Seems that it takes a long time for things to get to court these days. Haven't researched it but I'd guess it's a case of trying to clear out a backlog of older cases (re: pandemic where I'm assuming you can't just have 'virtual tv' handling all cases). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-AJ- Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 12 hours ago, D-Money said: It never fails to amaze me how stupid some people can be with their money. I mean, giving $2M to this guy…why? Because he made it to the AHL? He didn't even do that. He never made it past the ECHL and was only even a fringe player at that level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurn Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 2 hours ago, GB5 said: The trial date of Jan 2024 is a long way away. Seems that it takes a long time for things to get to court these days. hopefully the court relaxes their desire to have cases heard promptly, as a nod to the pandemic. There have been a few cases tossed due to delays in getting them to trial, iirc there is now a written policy in this regard. Seems we need more of a lot of public workers. Heck we need more workers period. Lot of job openings out there right now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Canuck #12 Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Guess he won't be droppin' the puck on Diwali Night! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gottalovethosenucks Posted August 30, 2022 Share Posted August 30, 2022 Surprised he made enough in hockey to fraud that much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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