York University had options when it realized there was concern about an executive’s possible impropriety, and most of those choices would have involved paying him nothing rather than almost $700,000 in a severance deal, a judge says.

Mr. Justice David Brown of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice made the comment about York’s controversial deal with the fired official in a ruling this week that rejected the university’s attempt for a freeze of the executive’s assets pending the outcome of his fraud case.

Michael Markicevic, a former York assistant vice-president, bought a small aircraft after receiving his severance package in 2010 but Brown said in his decision that the university can’t expect to tie up the property.

“When York developed concerns about Markicevic in early 2010, a number of options were available to it,” Brown noted in his judgment. “Most would not have involved paying Markicevic any money.

“But, York chose the option under which it paid him a very healthy severance package. By doing so, it ran the risk that Markicevic might well spend some of that money. He did just that and transferred one of the purchases to his daughter.”

Brown added that he didn’t think York was entitled to relief “of a risk which it created.”

York, one of the country’s biggest universities, fired Markicevic in February 2010 without cause and paid him about $693,000 or double his entitlement under an employment contract. The package included an $86,000 “performance” bonus.

The university sued him and two dozen other parties last year for more than $3 million for their alleged role in a “vast and complicated conspiracy” involving a phony invoice scheme. The school also wants him the repay the severance package.

York says in court filings that at the time of Markicevic’s dismissal, the university had no knowledge of the extent of his involvement in the alleged scheme.

Among other allegations, York claims Markicevic gained at least $250,000 in improvements to two homes with the university footing the bills. Markicevic has denied the allegations, which must still be proven in court.

Toronto police have also charged Markicevic and another executive with criminal fraud and laundering the proceeds of crime in connection with the same alleged scheme.

In addition to the aircraft, York sought to freeze the disposition of the two Markicevic family homes by claiming money, materials and services from the university are traceable to the improvement of the residences. He transferred ownership of the two homes to his spouse and daughter.

York added there is a real risk that the Markicevic assets will disappear without the court’s intervention which would adversely affect the university’s ability to recover losses if it wins the lawsuit.

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Brown said that while York showed it had a strong claim about one of the homes, the university’s evidence that Markicevic would dispose of the assets was “thin” and did not warrant a sweeping freeze or so-called Mareva injunction. Markicevic transferred one of the homes in Vaughan to his daughter two years before the dismissal.

At the same time, Brown ruled in favour of York’s requests for “certificates of pending litigation,” which warn parties who show an interest in the properties that there is a legal claim involving them and potential jeopardy in a change in ownership.