ARTA has announced that following its review and analysis of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice documents filed by the bankruptcy Trustee in the Conquest Vacations failure it has learned that TICO's claim for $2.2 million as a secured creditor to recover funds has been rejected.
The Trustee is claiming that TICO's claim to recover funds paid out for trip completionand related services following the demise of Conquest does not fall under Travel Industry Act Regulations which they claim require TICO to have copies of trust account agreements between registrants and the registrants' financial institutions where their trust accounts are maintained. TICO did not have copies of the agreements from Conquest.
The Trustee has also stated that, irrespective of the trust agreements, TICO cannot claim against the Conquest estate (valued at approximately $2 million) in that any amounts actually held in such trust agreements must benefit consumers and travel suppliers; not TICO.
Despite the fact that TICO's claim on the Conquest estate was to cover the costs of hotel bills and repatriation of stranded Conquest clients, if the Trustee's decision is not overturned, the Ontario compensation fund will have to cover those amounts.
