{"id":627522,"date":"2026-04-25T10:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/627522\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T10:30:10","slug":"b-c-supreme-court-orders-return-of-5-1m-in-dispute-between-kelowna-businessman-and-assistant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/627522\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Supreme Court orders return of $5.1M in dispute between Kelowna businessman and assistant"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has ruled that millions of dollars transferred from a Kelowna businessman to his personal assistant must be returned \u2014 while also awarding the assistant damages for sexual assault.<\/p>\n

Court heard testimony that Doug Beckman, a successful businessman who founded prefabricated housing and energy companies, hired Karen Vinci in 2017. Beckman has Huntington’s disease, a degenerative condition that can affect memory, judgment and decision-making. <\/p>\n

According to the judgment<\/a>, Beckman and Vinci spent significant time together, even travelling to Hawaii, with witnesses testifying Beckman became “infatuated” with Vinci, declaring his love to her.<\/p>\n

As the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Beckman transferred more than $5 million to Vinci and her family between 2020 and 2022.\u00a0Much of the money was used to purchase homes in Kelowna and other locations.<\/p>\n

In court, Beckman insisted the money was meant to be repaid as loans. Vinci argued it was given as a gift.<\/p>\n

The judge found neither side fully proved their claims.<\/p>\n

In delivering a judgment late last month, Justice Lisa J. Hamilton acknowledged “the relationship between Doug and Karen\u00a0became more social than professional.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the judge\u00a0applied the legal principle of a “resulting trust,” meaning the recipients must return any money and purchased properties.<\/p>\n

Hamilton added that even if the transfers had been gifts, they would have been set aside due to undue influence. Witnesses told the court Huntington’s disease made Beckman increasingly vulnerable during the time the money was transferred.<\/p>\n

Hamilton also questioned Vinci\u2019s testimony, finding she tailored parts of her evidence and accepted large sums despite warnings from others close to Beckman.<\/p>\n

The ruling addressed a counterclaim Vinci filed in court.<\/p>\n

Vinci alleged she was wrongfully dismissed in 2022 and sought damages, claiming she was fired for refusing to marry Beckman. The court dismissed that claim, finding she was terminated for cause after accepting money without proper oversight.<\/p>\n

However, the judge did find that Vinci was entitled to “a modest amount” of damages, $15,000, after concluding Beckman committed sexual assault and battery against her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-627522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627522","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=627522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}