Jay's Metal: about $610,300 to or for the principal, repaying his loan, he says

Cheque 1026 was payable to Jagjit Bajwa, for $148,500. It cleared on August 21, 2026, the day after Justice G.S. Dunlop of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta appointed BDO Canada Limited receiver and manager of the four Jay's Metal companies, according to the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, paras. 1, 63(d). When BDO's counsel put the cheque to Mr. Bajwa at an examination on October 1, calling it a payment to himself of company assets the day after the receiver was appointed, he confirmed it and added: "But that was written the day before." He said he learned the order had been granted at the "End of 20th," per the transcript appended to the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, App. "C", transcript p. 87.

The cheque closes a list under the report's heading "Potential Reviewable Transactions." BDO, which is also trustee in bankruptcy of Jay's Metal Products Ltd., says it has not finished reviewing the companies' banking. On what it calls a "cursory review," the report counts about $610,300 paid "directly to or for Mr. Bajwa" between August 5 and August 21, exclusive of anything its continuing review identifies, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, paras. 5, 63. Mr. Bajwa's explanation, as the report records it, is that he directed the transfers from Jay's Metal Products' bank account to repay a shareholder loan he had made to the company, and "then purportedly used these funds to repay money he borrowed from family and friends or other personal lenders." The trustee "makes no determination in this Fourth Report concerning the legal characterization or recoverability of any transaction," and intends to discuss these and any other transactions it identifies with estate inspectors "as it relates to a potential challenge pursuant to Section 95(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and any other particular law," per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, paras. 64–65.

The case was last reported here on September 19, after Justice M. A. Marion declared that the companies and the two individual defendants, Mr. Bajwa and Rajinder Singh, had "substantially failed to comply" with a records order, and required Management, as the order calls them, to attend on September 24 to show cause why they should not be held in contempt, per the Order Declaring Non-Compliance, Sept. 18, 2026, paras. 2, 6.

Two affidavits, and a second deadline

The receiver's Third Report, dated September 23, recorded two desktop computers delivered to its office that day, and affidavits from both men that arrived "slightly after the Deadline due to an apparent technical issue." In the receiver's preliminary view, neither affidavit answered Schedule "A" paragraph by paragraph or confirmed that no responsive property or data had been "deleted, altered, destroyed, transferred, concealed, encrypted, withheld or impaired," per the Third Report of the Receiver, Sept. 23, 2026, paras. 17–18. Each man swore that his non-compliance was not deliberate. Mr. Bajwa, who swears he was the principal of the four companies and founded the business in 2013, said that the volume of information requested and the time given to respond left him "overwhelmed and unable to determine where to begin," per the Third Report of the Receiver, Sept. 23, 2026, App. "F", paras. 2–3, 5, 8, and App. "G", para. 9.

Justice Marion's order of September 24 declared that Management "has not complied with paragraph 5 of the Non-Compliance Order," the affidavit requirement, and gave each man until 4 p.m. on September 28 to comply fully. It adjourned the return application to 8:30 a.m. on October 15; ordered both men to attend personally "to show cause why they should not be declared in civil contempt of the Compelling Order, the Non-Compliance Order and this Order, and why sanctions should not be imposed"; and adjourned all costs issues to October 15, per the Order Adjourning Return Application, Sept. 24, 2026, paras. 2–3, 5–6, 9. Both men's new affidavits were served on the receiver on September 28, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, para. 16.

What the bank records show, and what he said about them

The report's total has three parts. Between August 5 and August 13, it says, Jay's Metal Products paid about $213,500 to or for Mr. Bajwa, including six separate $25,000 transfers and one of $10,000 on August 11; on August 19 it paid about $248,300, made up of a $100,000 EFT to an account identified as "TD Jay Bajwa," five transfers of $25,000 and one of $23,300; the third part is the $148,500 cheque, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, para. 63.

Of a $10,000 e-transfer to himself on August 5, Mr. Bajwa said at the examination: "So there's a lot of personal money I putted in, so any time the company needs money, I will put the personal in and take it out." He did not remember what his shareholder loan stood at in June, and put what remains outstanding at "Close to a million dollar," per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, App. "C", transcript pp. 75, 85. Of the August 11 transfers he said, "Same. Loan payback," and that friends he had borrowed from were asking to be repaid. When the receiver's counsel suggested he made the August 19 payments because he knew the funds would not be available once a receiver was appointed, he answered, "'Cause I didn't think that," and said that people he owed had been phoning him about payments he had been unable to make a month or two earlier, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, App. "C", transcript pp. 78, 83–84. His counsel accepted, on a best-efforts basis, an undertaking to detail his shareholder loans, and took under advisement a request that he name his lenders and show that he paid them with the funds, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, App. "C", transcript pp. 77, 105–106.

A company once called Jay's Group

Since its Third Report, BDO has told the court that it has received information "from multiple sources" alleging that some of the debtors' assets, inventory and business opportunities may have been removed from their premises to another location, and that one or more individuals associated with Management may be using equipment, inventory, customer relationships and business opportunities that belonged to, or were associated with, the debtors in a new business venture that the Fourth Report names as "The Metal Group." It has not completed its investigation, "is not in a position to determine their accuracy" and "has therefore made no finding as to whether any such allegations are true," per the Third Report of the Receiver, Sept. 23, 2026, para. 40 and the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, paras. 56–57.

Mr. Bajwa testified, the report records, that he does not know the individual the receiver identifies as The Metal Group's director; that he has not been at what it identifies as the company's business address; that he knows of no former Jay's Metal employees who went to work there; that none of Jay's inventory, equipment, tooling, vehicles, computers or other assets was transferred to The Metal Group; and that he has had no contact with Jay's Metal customers or suppliers since the receivership, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, para. 58. Shown an Alberta corporate registry search dated September 18, 2026, and told by the receiver's counsel that The Metal Group Ltd. had been named Jay's Group Ltd. until September 8, 2026, he said he had no idea why, per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, para. 59 and App. "E". He testified that he had no involvement with the company under that name, and his counsel observed that the "Jay" name "is very common within the community," per the Fourth Report of the Receiver, Oct. 12, 2026, App. "C", transcript p. 122.