{"id":557856,"date":"2026-03-24T16:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/557856\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:50:14","slug":"company-misses-deadline-city-going-to-court-to-fight-for-28-m-settlement-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/557856\/","title":{"rendered":"Company misses deadline, city going to court to fight for $28-M settlement \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

The city is going to court after a Winnipeg construction company missed a deadline to pay millions in a settlement for fraud and construction deficiencies connected to the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters project.<\/p>\n

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the deadline for Caspian Construction to pay the $23-million settlement was Monday at 4:30 p.m., but up until then, the city had received only $500,000 of the payment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city\u2019s legal team will take immediate action to move for a $28-million judgment as the settlement deadline was not met,\u201d Gillingham said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

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RUTH BONNEVILLE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n

Caspian Construction owner Armik Babakhanians said he agreed to pay the city $23 million for both personal and business reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take every reasonable step to recover this money on behalf of Winnipeg taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n

City spokesman David Driedger said no further information can be released on the matter because \u201cit relates to the assets over which the city has security.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a public inquiry into the construction project Monday, Caspian Projects owner Armik Babakhanians testified he had signed documents to make sure the city received the payment, but lawyers were still finalizing the transfer of money earlier that day.<\/p>\n

Babakhanians said he agreed to pay the city $23 million for both personal and business reasons.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n

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Kevin Rollason\u2019s Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\"Sign<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a commercial decision, but also it\u2026 just tore our family (apart). I just couldn\u2019t see the pain (anymore).\u201d<\/p>\n

The inquiry was called by the province to look into problems with the construction of the police headquarters.<\/p>\n

An external audit said the project, which was originally budgeted at $135 million but jumped to $214 million before it was completed, was severely mismanaged.<\/p>\n

City council voted to approve the settlement and the timeline in March 2023. Under its terms, the city was to get paid around $23 million, if transferred over within three years, but if the deadline was missed, the city would ask the Court of King\u2019s Bench to order the company to pay $28 million.<\/p>\n

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Kevin<\/p>\n

Kevin Rollason
Reporter
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Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until\u00a01988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press\u2019s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The city is going to court after a Winnipeg construction company missed a deadline to pay millions in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-557856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}