Anwar & Anwar: four names come off the Mareva, one stays

On August 17, 2026, a bank draft for approximately $9,686 reached Ernst & Young Inc. from Unity Credit Union. It carried the contents of a safety deposit box, which the settlement that released it describes as $5,000 in Canadian currency and US$3,450, and it is the only settlement money in the receiver's statement of receipts to August 24, per the Fifteenth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 22–23 and the Fourteenth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 18, 2026, App. "A", s. 3.01(d). Ernst & Young signed that settlement on August 6 with four of the five individuals whom the Court of King's Bench for Saskatchewan held liable, in September 2025, for $1,212,792.55 in transfers at undervalue out of two bankrupt tax-preparation franchisees.

Fifteen days later, Justice S.M. Sinclair deleted those four names from the Mareva injunction that had frozen their property since December 24, 2024, and from the disclosure order that had required banks to report their accounts. The fifth, Naveed Anwar, the companies' former general manager, remains subject to both, per the Second Amending Mareva Injunction Order, Aug. 21, 2026, paras. 1–2 and the Second Amended Disclosure Order, Aug. 21, 2026, paras. 1–2.

Twenty offices, three provinces

Anwar & Anwar Consulting Inc. and 102050413 Saskatchewan Inc. prepared tax returns under 20 franchise agreements with H&R Block Canada, Inc. signed between 2020 and 2024: two Saskatchewan locations for 102 Sask, thirteen in Quebec and five in New Brunswick for AAC, per the Brief of Law of H&R Block Canada Inc., July 8, 2024, paras. 9–12. The offices ran from Swift Current and Assiniboia to Chandler, Quebec, which the interim receiver measured at 719 kilometres from Quebec City. The contractor it hired to secure the eastern premises drove 941 kilometres from Montreal to reach Chandler, and in municipalities with no locksmith of their own brought one along, per the Report of the Interim Receiver, Aug. 2, 2024, paras. 10–16.

The franchisees could not pay their monthly royalties in early April 2024. Block demanded payment twice, terminated every franchise agreement on June 10, and applied for an interim receiver under s. 47(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and s. 10-15 of The King's Bench Act, putting the debt at $1,051,657.20 plus interest at 15% a year. Its termination notice alleged, among other defaults, the use of tax software other than Block's and misrepresentation of the companies' ownership, per the Brief of Law of H&R Block Canada Inc., July 8, 2024, paras. 16–22, 26. Justice A.R. Rothery appointed Ernst & Young interim receiver on July 9, 2024 and receiver and manager on August 7, and the receiver assigned both companies into bankruptcy on October 17, 2024, becoming their trustee, per the Fifteenth Report of the Receiver, Aug. 25, 2026, paras. 1–4.

What the court found

Most of what has happened since turns on two decisions of Justice R.W. Elson in the bankruptcy file. His judgment of September 24, 2025, Ernst & Young Inc. v Anwar, 2025 SKKB 157, calls the file "a saga connected to the bankruptcy of two companies and the improper disposition of the more than $1.2 million of their cash assets," and summarizes the first decision, of May 12, 2025. Between June 26, 2023 and November 26, 2024, the court had found, $1,383,792.55 originating from the debtors reached Ammad Anwar, Naveed Anwar and Farah Naz. Transfers to Naveed Anwar and Farah Naz totalling $1,212,792.55 were transfers at undervalue under s. 96 of the BIA, and a $50,000 payment to Ammad Anwar on March 27, 2024 was a preference under s. 95, per the Ernst & Young Inc. v Anwar, 2025 SKKB 157, Sept. 24, 2025, paras. 1, 12–14.

The judgment traces $900,000 of it through a law firm. Ammad Anwar, then a practising lawyer at the Anwar & Riou Law Office in Unity, received $990,000 through his firm from the debtors and 14272056 Canada Corp., money said to be for the purchase of a Saskatoon fourplex he held with Farah Naz. When the purchase did not proceed he held the funds in trust until instructed to wire $900,000 to Naveed Anwar, which he did in two transfers, on July 23 and November 26, 2024. The court found that Naveed Anwar wired most of what he received from his personal account to Al Bashayera Auto Used Trading and Auctions LLC SP in the United Arab Emirates, $1,170,050 including transfer commissions. No sworn evidence explained why, though in an unsworn comment at the earlier hearing Mr. Anwar said the funds were used to pay debts; "As to whether that explanation, such as it is, could withstand further scrutiny, I cannot say," Justice Elson wrote, per the Ernst & Young Inc. v Anwar, 2025 SKKB 157, Sept. 24, 2025, paras. 9–10, 14.

The September hearing was about how far liability should reach. Naveed Anwar was the only individual who conceded liability for the $1,212,792.55; each of the others contended they received no benefit. The court found that Naveed Anwar, general manager of both debtors and sole director of 14272056 Canada, "orchestrated a scheme by which he eventually received a direct and substantial benefit." Wafa Anwar had been sole director and shareholder of both companies by the summer of 2024, Wardah Anwar had earlier been a director of AAC, and each had given Block unlimited personal guarantees; Justice Elson found that both "improperly allowed and/or caused all the transfers at undervalue to occur." Farah Naz, a shareholder of the numbered company with signing authority on its account, and Wardah Anwar both denied receiving any benefit, and the court held them liable as persons who, "given their closeness to Naveed," would expect an indirect one. Ammad Anwar accepted liability for the $50,000 preference and denied the rest; the court found he "either knew or was wilfully blind" to the improper source of the $900,000 and capped his joint liability at that sum. The other four and the numbered company are jointly and severally liable for the full $1,212,792.55, and costs were fixed at $90,000 on a solicitor-client basis, per the Ernst & Young Inc. v Anwar, 2025 SKKB 157, Sept. 24, 2025, paras. 7–8, 28, 41–50.

Farah Naz, Wardah Anwar and Wafa Anwar moved to appeal the September judgment, and Justice Tholl of the Court of Appeal extended their time to appeal, finding he could not say every one of their grounds failed to raise a debatable issue, a test passed "albeit not with flying colours," and recording Ernst & Young's concession that a notice of appeal would stay the judgment under s. 195 of the BIA, per the Fiat of Justice Tholl, Nov. 4, 2025, paras. 14–17.

The freeze, and the disclosure

The Mareva injunction came first, and it is interim relief: it holds assets in place against the risk that they disappear before a claim is decided, and it decides nothing about the claim. Justice Elson made it on December 24, 2024, on the receiver's application without notice, and gave those it bound leave to make submissions on December 30. It restrained the five individuals, Umair Anwar, two numbered companies, two legal professional corporations and the law office from "dealing with, transferring, conveying, gifting, mortgaging, charging, using, disposing of, creating an interest in or encumbrance over, or doing anything, to any 'exigible property'" wherever located. Each had fifteen days to deliver sworn evidence of all their assets, banks served were enjoined from dealing with their accounts and required to open their safety deposit boxes to the receiver, and each individual could make one withdrawal of $2,500 for living expenses, per the Second Amending Mareva Injunction Order, Aug. 21, 2026, App. "A" (Mareva Injunction Order, Dec. 24, 2024, paras. 1, 6–8, 11, 15).