Город Виннипег подал в суд на мебельный магазин Modo Furniture за неуплату налогов и невыполненные заказы

Winnipeg store accused of failing to deliver items faces city lawsuit over unpaid taxes Modo Furniture owes more than $26K, statement of claim says A Winnipeg furniture store previously ordered to pay tens of thousands of dollars for undelivered items is being sued by the city, which says the business has failed to pay taxes for years. Modo Furniture & Appliances on St. James Street has not paid more than $26,000 in business taxes and penalties dating back to 2022, the city said in a statement of claim filed in mid-July. The city says in the statement of claim it wants an injunction that would stop the store's operations as long as the taxes remain unpaid and that would authorize peace officers to potentially padlock the doors and arrest or remove anyone contravening the order. The lawsuit gives notice of the city's intention, but a motion for an interim injunction had not been filed yet, City of Winnipeg communications officer Adam Campbell said last month. No statement of defence has been filed. Modo, formerly known as Rove Furniture, had previously been the subject of several complaints from customers who alleged it failed to deliver the furniture they bought. Small claims lawsuits It's been ordered to pay more than $37,000 in small claims lawsuits filed since 2024, with plaintiffs from Winnipeg, British Columbia and Quebec all saying the furniture store failed to deliver the items they ordered. The store's owner, Nitish Kesar, is charged with three offences related to violations of Manitoba's Business Practices Act that allegedly happened between December 2023 and November 2025. The charges against him were laid in his capacity as director of Rove and Modo, documents show. A person found guilty of a first offence under the act can be fined up to $100,000 and jailed for up to a year, while a corporation faces a fine up to $300,000 for a first offence. A judge can also order that affected consumers be compensated. Winnipeg police said last month they couldn't comment on Modo because an investigation was ongoing. The city's statement of claim says commercial credit adjusters personally served the business in September 2025 with an order to cease operations within a month. Kesar told CBC News in mid-August he was in discussions with the city regarding the claim. 'Been through a lot' He said earlier that month that he'd settled more than $50,000 in claims from people who'd sued the company for refunds. "We are willing to pay everyone," Kesar said in a phone call Aug. 5. "But it has to be settled in a legal way, so that these people cannot come after us later on, because we actually refunded some people, and they said they never got the money. So, some people are actually lying." Kesar said a lot of legal matters involving him personally had also been settled. "Our company has already been through a lot in the past," he said. The previous story CBC did on Rove Furniture hurt the business "majorly," Kesar said. He referred further comment to lawyer Matt Gould. Gould declined to comment, saying there are pending matters in court. Kesar has had past legal troubles. A lawsuit by insurance agency SGI Canada alleged Kesar had filed a fraudulent insurance claim for $65,652 through Sigma Batteries & Chargers Corp., an Ontario-based company that had him listed as an owner. SGI said Kesar submitted a claim in March 2024 alleging chargers had been stolen from a warehouse just northwest of Winnipeg. The insurer said in a statement of claim that after paying out the money, it found Sigma had never been a tenant of the warehouse nor stored anything there, and no theft had happened. SGI said Kesar submitted a false written lease to support the insurance claim. Kesar and the company were ordered to pay $67,709 each after failing to respond to the lawsuit, the court registry says. Kesar denied SGI's claim he was not leasing the warehouse in an email on Aug. 14, but said he was "settling with SGI" and had made payments. Bad cheques Other lawsuits, filed in 2024 and 2025, claimed Kesar personally owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to different creditors. Kesar and another defendant were ordered to pay nearly $130,000 each to Access Credit Union in one default judgment. Another lawsuit, filed by the Bank of Montreal, resulted in Kesar being ordered to pay nearly $111,000 in costs and damages. The lawsuit said he had deposited a series of bad cheques to withdraw large cash advances, taking the money before the cheques bounced. In a statement of defence, Kesar said the bank knew he was struggling financially but didn't offer him repayment options. He also denied allegations of misuse and said it was extremely concerning that the bank didn't provide proof of serious allegations of fraud and misrepresentation. Exhibits attached to an affidavit by a BMO employee, who said Kesar had defaulted on the terms of a Mastercard and line of credit accounts, showed seven cheques totalling $24,400 issued from one of Kesar's bank accounts to himself within days of each other in February 2024. 'Scammed and hacked' Kesar said in the August email that his account had been "scammed and hacked." "If you guys publish anything [on] personal matter[s] and BMO matters or SGI, we will personally sue you," the email said. One of the small claims lawsuits against Rove Furniture accused Kesar of issuing a cheque in February 2024 as a refund even though he knew there were insufficient funds in the account. That statement of claim said Kesar tried to dissuade the plaintiff from seeking justice, saying "going to court will not help you at all, it's best to resolve mutually." The furniture store was ordered to pay $4,716 after failing to appear in court. Including that ruling, there have been eight default judgments issued against Modo/Rove in small claims court. Six other small claims lawsuits were either discontinued or dismissed because the claimant did not show up. One case has yet to be decided.