Ian Mulgrew: Love is blind, sometimes wilfully
Credit to Author: Ian Mulgrew| Date: Sun, 03 Nov 2019 21:57:06 +0000
Poor Sarkis Yazbek, the El Salvador refugee was unlucky in life and definitely unlucky in love.
A wife and child murdered, an uncle shot dead, another wounded, a cousin shot in the head — all victims of his country’s dirty war.
Wounded, captured and tortured by the rebels, Yazbek escaped to the U.S. and then to Canada in 1987 with the woman who would become his second wife.
But she ran off with their child, breaking his heart and leaving him bereft.
Yazbek remarried in Vancouver but his third wife, Petra, embroiled him in the theft of more than half a million dollars from West Bros. Frame & Chair Ltd., an Eastside custom furniture maker.
English is not Yazbek’s first language, so consider his tale of tears recounted by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Jeanne Watchuk in a recent 17,000-word decision that concluded love shouldn’t be wilfully blind.
Yazbek was born in Berlin, a town of about 10,000 in El Salvador.
In his teens, he began a relationship with Eveline Resinos and in 1980 he joined the army as a lieutenant cadet.
The couple had a son, Ramundo Resinos but in 1982, terrorists seized Eveline and Ramundo and murdered them. Yazbek was devastated.
“He understood that they were targeted because of their relationship to him and his service in the military,” Watchuk said.
“He contemplated suicide, but did not kill himself because it was contrary to his Catholic faith and because his parents would not receive benefits.”
A year later, the rebels attacked Berlin.
Yazbek’s young cousin was shot in the head but survived; two of his uncles were shot — one survived, and Yazbek was shot in the left arm.
He was captured by the rebels, interrogated and tortured but was later released.
Yazbek left the army in 1984 and, with his new love Alta Garcia, moved to the U.S. with the help of an American army officer.
Yazbek and Garcia married in 1987 but El Salvador-linked gang activity in Los Angeles proved too much and the couple moved to Winnipeg where Yazbek’s sister, Ana Lopez, lived.
He applied for refugee status, but neither they nor Lopez liked Winnipeg and both families moved to Vancouver in 1987.
Yazbek’s marriage to Garcia ended in 1992 and, in 1994, she vanished with their son Sarkis.
He was devastated by the loss and unable to work, Watchuk said.
Yazbek, who had become a Canadian citizen, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“He continues to suffer from this, and is sometimes unable to sleep or wakes up screaming,” Watchuk said. “He suffers from panic attacks. He is fearful that his children will be taken from him.”
With the help of medication, Yazbek started an apprenticeship at a boat building company, Camano Marine. There, he met Petra in 2001.
They moved in together in 2003 and, thereafter, she managed his finances and they maintained only joint accounts. They married in 2005.
When Camano closed, Yazbek became an independent contractor fixing boats from a shop at Bridgeview Marine, leaving all the business finances to his wife, as well.
Shown his tax returns in cross-examination, Yazbek testified he had never seen them before.
Shortly after Ms. Yazbek started to work at West Bros. in Dec. 2008 as a $55,000-a-year bookkeeper, she became pregnant.
Their first daughter was born in Aug. 2009, and their second in Dec. 2011.
Ms. Yazbek resigned from West Bros. in Nov. 2014.
However, the company’s new bookkeeper discovered more than $220,000 missing from a line of credit, which uncovered Ms. Yazbek’s larceny.
She used the stolen money to supplement the family’s lifestyle and support Lopez, whose daughter Amy was dying of cancer.
Ms. Yazbek gave her sister-in-law $58,867, more than her gross annual income Watchuk noted.
Yet her husband never questioned the amount or where it came from — Lopez was family.
“Further, Mr. Yazbek testified that despite the evidence that has been tendered in this trial, he has never asked Ms. Yazbek whether she stole money from West Bros.,” Watchuk emphasized.
“He claims that he continues to trust her completely and does not believe that she has done anything wrong.”
Even now, Yazbek “never questions anything that she does.”
Watchuk concluded Ms. Yazbek misappropriated $611,920.48 and he was jointly liable:
“I find that it was not reasonable for Mr. Yazbek to fail to make inquiries in these circumstances. He had knowledge of facts which would put a reasonable person on inquiry,” Watchuk said.
“In particular, it was not reasonable to believe that Ms. Yazbek earned $120,000 per year as a bookkeeper and that she was paid during maternity leave. … He was not inexperienced nor removed from the world of commerce and employee remuneration.”
In addition, he knew she was splitting her income and reporting some of it on his tax return, Watchuk said:
“A reasonable person would be put on notice by such questionable income tax reporting practices.”
Even with the “compelling” testimony about his many family tragedies, she was incredulous.
“I do not believe that he did not suspect. His responses reflect his unreasonable absence of enquiry. … If he had known of the theft, he said that as much as he loved her, he would have left Ms. Yazbek.”
Watchuk, though, saw he was besotted.
“From this and the totality of the evidence, I conclude that Mr. Yazbek could not bear to entertain the notion that Ms. Yazbek was stealing. … For survival, Mr. Yazbek chose not to suspect. He chose not to inquire, for inquiry might lead him to knowledge of something that would destroy yet another of his families, his third. Most notably, even after this litigation commenced and even after being present in court for most of the plaintiff’s case, Mr. Yazbek did not ask Ms. Yazbek if she stole from West Bros.”
The couple’s Delta home, purchased in 2008 for $470,000, could be on the line.
Yazbek was liable for $301,426.62 and his wife for $611,920.48, plus interest — but his payments will be credited to her to avoid double payment.
Watchuk also slapped Ms. Yazbek with $40,000 in punitive damages.
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