TORONTO – University of Toronto campus radio station CIUT-FM 89.5 has filed a lawsuit against its former station manager Brian Burchell seeking to retrieve more than $162,000 in station funds that he allegedly used to pay for personal expenses before he was fired in October 2010.
In its statement of claim filed against Burchell to the Ontario Superior Court, the University of Toronto Community Radio Inc. (UTCRI), which owns and operates CIUT, is seeking damages of $162,193.68, payment of its legal fees and other damages as may be proven. UTCRI is a registered charity that relies in part on donations to finance its operations and U of T students pay $3.75 to the station each year as part of their compulsory ancillary fees.
UTCRI writes in its court filing dated April 23, 2012 that as station manager and executive director of CIUT, Burchell had access to designated UTCRI bank accounts with the ability to withdraw and transfer funds from these accounts. In May 2010, the UTCRI Board of Directors was forwarded a complaint from one of Burchell's assistants that “alleged that Burchell was, among other things, misusing CIUT funds.”
In response the board launched a forensic audit that “revealed that Mr. Burchell and [his corporation] had improperly used and/or withdrawn a net total of $162,193.68 from UTCRI accounts.”
“The audit report showed that Mr. Burchell had been improperly abused his access to UTCRI bank accounts for his own personal gain. He routinely used UTCRI funds to pay for personal expenses, including alcohol, groceries, restaurants, parking fines, and personal travel. He also made a number of cash withdrawals, without submitting the requisite documentation to demonstrate that the money was legitimately spent on CUlT or UTCRI. In short, Mr. Burchell did not make any distinction between UTCRI accounts which held assets that were to be used for the company and his own personal bank accounts,” according to UTCRI’s statement of claim.
Burchell was suspended with pay and the board invited him to respond to the audit by October 15, 2010. He never provided the board with a full response and was fired for cause four days later.
This past August CIUT was called before the CRTC for non-compliance for not filing its annual returns for seven years. The station contends that the non-compliance is the result of a “misunderstanding of the regulations on behalf of station management.”
