Is It Getting Harder To Get A Worldwide Freezing Injunction In Alberta?

Typically, pursuing fraudsters is an exercise in detective work, forensic analysis and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Rarely does a fraud come with a smoking gun or confession. Parties must cobble together evidence (factual and expert) to persuade the court that a fraud has occurred and where the funds might have gone. This usually requires the use of some hearsay evidence.

In Henenghaixin Corp v Deng, 2022 ABCA 271 [Henenghaixin], the Alberta Court of Appeal (ABCA) sent a clear warning that counsel applying for extraordinary remedies must be careful when relying on hearsay evidence to ground their claims. The Court stated that "[h]earsay evidence should be approached cautiously, particularly in the absence of an explanation as to why key available evidence has not been provided by individuals who have personal knowledge of the relevant facts." In this case, the applicants relied on hearsay evidence without explaining why they were required to do so. The result was