Executive Summary: Key Legal and Evidentiary Issues

• Sebastien Sirois' application for an absolute discharge from bankruptcy was refused due to numerous unresolved issues regarding potentially undisclosed assets and an affluent lifestyle inconsistent with his disclosed income (NIL) during bankruptcy.

• The Trustee raised serious concerns about the bankrupt's possible beneficial ownership of a luxury catamaran (the "Mia") and a BVI company (Sustainable Investment Ltd.), both nominally held by his wife's former spouse, Karn Limpananont.

• Conflicting and evasive testimony from Mr. Sirois regarding the dissolution and reinstatement of his company Pure & Co., a $700,000 loan to that entity, and unreported proceeds from disposition of shares undermined his credibility.

• Mr. Sirois' subsequent application to revoke the inspector's appointment, examine the Trustee under oath, and obtain declaratory relief on disclosure was largely dismissed, with the court finding no actual or perceived conflict of interest warranting the inspector's removal.

• The court ordered limited document disclosure by the Trustee within 21 days but protected privileged materials and the Trustee's asset-recovery strategy from production.

• Associate Judge Peck cautioned Mr. Sirois about filing potentially moot and overlapping applications, noting the strain on court resources and the risk of collateral attacks on prior decisions.

The facts behind the Sirois bankruptcy

Sebastien Sirois, a 53-year-old Canadian national originally from Quebec, operated a garment manufacturing business in Thailand through several companies, including Neon Buddha Ltd. and Pure & Co. Ltd., amongst others. After relocating to Vancouver with his wife, Mayuree Sirois, in about 2017, he became embroiled in litigation with Kevin Richer, whose toy manufacturing business was Wookie Entertainment Inc. The litigation was started by Mr. Richer in or about 2016. On May 30, 2023, the Quebec Court of Appeal granted Mr. Richer judgment against Mr. Sirois and three companies — Neon Buddha Ltd., Pure & Co. Ltd., and BPO Solutions Ltd. — for $4,850,000, plus interest and costs. Mr. Sirois' application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada was dismissed on March 7, 2024, and on the same day, Mr. Richer filed an application in BC Supreme Court seeking an order assigning Mr. Sirois into bankruptcy.

The voluntary assignment and trustee concerns

Mr. Sirois assigned himself into bankruptcy on April 3, 2024. In his sworn Statement of Affairs dated April 3, 2024, he disclosed assets comprising furniture ($1,000) and an exempted RRSP ($162,599.48). He apparently provided $10,500 in cash to the original trustee, Goldhar & Associates. As of the date of bankruptcy, there were proven claims totalling $6,818,025.25. Grant Thornton Limited replaced the original trustee following a meeting of creditors on July 18, 2024, where creditors passed a special resolution substituting Grant Thornton as trustee on Mr. Richer's motion. The Trustee requested conversion from summary to ordinary administration due to the complexity of the estate and in anticipation of significant time and costs being necessary to investigate the bankrupt's affairs and to conduct s. 163 BIA examinations. On October 16, 2024, the Official Receiver issued a Certificate of Appointment (Ordinary Administration).

Lifestyle inconsistencies and undisclosed assets

The Trustee's investigation revealed a disconnect between Mr. Sirois' disclosed income (NIL) during bankruptcy and his apparent lifestyle. The bankrupt reported that his family's living expenses were being paid by Ms. Sirois, but he did not report his monthly living expenses on his income and expense reports. The Sirois family resided at 5716 Newton Wynd, Vancouver (the "Newton Property"), where Ms. Sirois co-signed a lease requiring payment of $8,082 per month in rent. The registered owner of the Newton Property was Yuhui Frederick Sung, a Chinese national from Hong Kong, who bought it in April 2017 for $17,098,000. In 2024, its BC Assessment value was $12,716,000, and it ranked #450 on the list of the top 500 valued residential properties in BC. Mr. Sirois travelled extensively since the bankruptcy began, including to the Netherlands, Vietnam on at least two occasions, and various trips to the United States. He flew first/business class on at least one occasion. Credit card statements showed purchases on an RBC credit card on which Mr. Sirois was an authorized user with Ms. Sirois, including $9,937.25 in the November 13 to December 9, 2024 period and $3,933.50 in the October 10 to November 12, 2024 period. He spent $21,875.12 on his RBC credit card between March 22, 2024 and April 3, 2024 — immediately prior to bankruptcy — including $3,277.54 at Neon, $2,112.79 on Amazon, $2,445.24 at Costco, $1,547.27 at Samsung, $2,246.15 at Dell, $2,000 at Air Canada, and $3,099.42 at Avion*Air/Vol.

The Sustainable Investment Ltd. and Mia controversy

A central issue in the proceedings was whether Mr. Sirois was the de facto owner of Sustainable Investment Ltd., a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands on September 3, 2009, and a 2023 Bali 4.6 model luxury catamaran named the "Mia – White Bay" (the "Mia"). The Trustee had not obtained an appraisal, but based on Internet searches, the same model and year of vessel could be worth between USD $600,000 to over USD $1 million. Mr. Sirois was originally the sole shareholder of Sustainable but transferred his shares to Karn Limpananont on February 2, 2017. Mr. Limpananont is Ms. Sirois' former spouse and a Thai national who resides in Chiang Mai, Thailand. However, immediately after the transfer, via a Director's Resolution dated February 3, 2017, the directors authorized Mr. Sirois to "manage the financial affairs of Sustainable, including opening bank accounts, investment accounts and to make investment decisions on behalf of the company." The Court of Appeal of Fort-de-France in Martinique, in a decision dated January 28, 2025, concluded that "Sustainable Investments Limited is only outwardly the owner of the vessel at issue, which actually belongs to Mr. Sebastian Sirois, Mr. Kevin Richer's debtor."

Pure & Co. and Neon Buddha Ltd.

During his s. 163 examination, Mr. Sirois admitted he was and remains the sole shareholder of Pure & Co., incorporated in the State of Wyoming. He voluntarily dissolved it on January 23, 2024 by filing an Article of Dissolution by Shareholders, about two months before filing for bankruptcy. However, on April 5, 2024 — two days after the assignment in bankruptcy — Ms. Monsura as director of Pure reinstated the company by filing Articles of Revocation of Dissolution. On June 13, 2024, the State of Wyoming issued a Certificate of Revocation of Dissolution. On October 7, 2024 — about six weeks prior to the Trustee's s. 163 examination of the bankrupt — Mr. Sirois signed a second Article of Dissolution to once again dissolve Pure. He did not advise the Trustee of the reinstatement, and when examined about it, his answers were equivocal and evasive, frequently resorting to saying he could not remember. The Trustee also identified a $700,000 loan which Pure received from Sustainable Investment Ltd., wired to Pure's JPMorgan Chase account on July 7, 2023. The bankrupt advised the loan had been used for Pure's operating expenses, which appeared to contradict his assertion that Pure had ceased operating in 2023. Neon Buddha Ltd., of which the Trustee says Mr. Sirois was the sole shareholder and beneficiary, made an assignment in bankruptcy on August 17, 2023. Mr. Sirois filed a proof of claim in that bankruptcy in the amount of $5,710.49. The Trustee says the shares and claim were not reported in Mr. Sirois' sworn Statement of Affairs in his own bankruptcy. Additionally, the Trustee says Mr. Sirois' 2023 tax return showed he received about $272,752 of proceeds from disposition of shares, mutual funds, etc., which he failed to report on his Statement of Affairs.

The discharge application and its refusal

On October 15, 2025, Mr. Sirois applied for an absolute discharge from bankruptcy pursuant to s. 172(1) of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, or alternatively a discharge on such terms and conditions as the Court deemed fit. The Trustee and the largest creditor asked that the discharge be refused, with leave for the bankrupt to re-apply after one year. Associate Judge Bilawich acknowledged this was Mr. Sirois' first bankruptcy and noted that he did not take issue with the suggestion that the value of his assets was not equal to $0.50 on the $1.00 of his unsecured liabilities. The court found that Mr. Sirois had opted not to try to find work and generate income during his bankruptcy, despite appearing to be an experienced and highly capable businessman. There was conflicting evidence regarding Ms. Sirois' capacity to cover the family's expenses: she mentioned generating cash income at the Richmond Night Market estimated at about $70,000–$80,000 in cash for summer 2024 and occasional cooking opportunities, but this was clearly not sufficient to cover the apparent family expenses. The court noted numerous unresolved issues, apparently relevant documents yet to be produced, and many unanswered questions. The application was dismissed, with liberty for Mr. Sirois to re-apply after one year from the date of release of the reasons, January 7, 2026.

The subsequent application for procedural relief

Following the discharge refusal, Mr. Sirois brought a wide-ranging application before Associate Judge Peck, heard on December 2, 2025 and February 12, 2026, seeking to revoke Mr. Richer's appointment as inspector under s. 116(5) of the BIA, to direct the Trustee to submit to an examination under oath under s. 163(2), to inspect and make copies of all books, records, and documents relating to the administration of the estate under s. 26(3), to compel production of the inspector's resolution required under s. 170(1), and to obtain declaratory relief under s. 4.2(2) of the BIA and s. 41 of the Code of Ethics restricting the use of information from the Trustee's file. He argued that Mr. Richer was ineligible as inspector due to multiple contested proceedings, including criminal complaints Mr. Sirois had filed in Martinique, an RCMP complaint in British Columbia, and a civil proceeding (Vancouver Registry Action No. S258271) commenced by Mr. and Ms. Sirois on November 3, 2025 against Mr. Richer and his spouse, Genevieve Lecompte.

The court's ruling on the procedural application

Associate Judge Peck dismissed the vast majority of the relief sought. On the inspector issue, the court found no actual or perceived conflict of interest, noting that the "contested proceedings" referenced by Mr. Sirois were all commenced by Mr. Sirois himself rather than by or against the bankrupt estate, and did not involve competing claims to estate assets. The court found that Mr. Richer's multijurisdictional approach had been necessitated by the fact that Mr. Sirois had disclosed no meaningful assets in Canada, and that pursuing a vessel that may be worth approximately $1,000,000 and may be beneficially owned by Mr. Sirois was rational behaviour for an inspector acting on behalf of creditors with proven claims of approximately $7,000,000. The application to examine the Trustee was dismissed, with the court finding that Mr. Sirois' proposed topics and questions constituted a fishing expedition and did not relate to the administration of the bankrupt estate as required by s. 163(2). The request for production of the inspector's resolution was denied because the written resolution was not prepared and does not exist, and its absence had already been raised at the discharge hearing without consequence. The declaratory relief under s. 4.2(2) of the BIA was also refused, as Mr. Sirois had not proven a lack of good faith on the part of the Trustee or the inspector. However, the court did order the Trustee to make available to Mr. Sirois, within 21 days, certain categories of estate administration documents for review, including proofs of claim, notices to creditors, reports, non-privileged correspondence, time sheets, applications and court orders, minutes of meetings, banking and accounting records, and supporting documents for disbursements — with correspondence and minutes redacted or omitted as necessary to remove discussion of the Trustee's strategy or tactics in pursuing asset recovery. No specific monetary amount was awarded to either party in these decisions, as they addressed the bankrupt's discharge status and procedural requests rather than a damages claim.