By Shumaila Mubarak and Amira Benjamin

Toronto Metropolitan Students’ Union’s (TMSU) independent investigator has uncovered significant financial mismanagement involving over $1.4 million paid to 11 vendors of the TMSU. 

The union’s auditors, BDO, had completed audits for TMSU’s previous financial statements from 2021-24. These statements were approved at this year’s Semi-Annual General Meeting (SAGM) on Dec. 2, following previous failed attempts to meet quorum, as previously reported by The Eyeopener.

At the SAGM, the independent investigator MNP reported on several financial irregularities in TMSU payments during the past years, including duplicate payments, significant inflation of prices, payments to vendors that don’t seem to exist, hotel payments in excess of $24,000 without an itemized invoice, payments to vendors before receiving an invoice and excessive financial assistance for certain students groups. 

All of these irregularities violate the TMSU’s financial policies. 

MNP flagged 22 of TMSU’s vendors as “suspicious,” 11 of which were paid a total of $1.4 million. 

The auditors particularly highlighted ImagineXperience, FX Events and LED Party Furniture as related entities, sharing a business address, ownership and a bank account. All three companies were paid the most by the TMSU. There is no record of contracts for services rendered by FX Events and LED Party Furniture, according to MNP.

The Eye reached out to all three companies but did not receive a comment in time for publication. 

MNP reported that ImagineXperience received $1 million alone for events from the TMSU for the 2024-25 year. Investigators highlighted $786,400 worth of payments to plan the 2024 Week of Welcome concert. Irregularities highlighted included “cheques were issued and deposited within one day of the invoice date” and a third-party acted as a representative of TMSU, according to a City of Toronto contract. 

“Unimaginable that you would pay something ahead of time without having an invoice to proceed it, which is obviously a violation of policies,” an MNP representative said.

In addition to these irregularities, MNP outlined that there were three contracts made for the Week of Welcome concert: $200,000 for Offset, $150,000 for G-Eazy and $150,000 to ImagineXperience out of which the City of Toronto was paid $125,000 for logistics, set-up and lighting. Apart from these figures, ImagineXperience was reportedly paid $303,000 in “excess expenditures.” 

Investigators said they were concerned what excess expenditures were used for, as the City of Toronto produced the event.

Despite all of these findings, the TMSU did not provide its 2024-25 financial statements at this year’s SAGM.

In an email to The Eye, TMSU executive directors revealed that the audited statements will be released in January 2026 instead, alongside the union’s budget for the 2025-26 year, for board approval. 

It remains unclear whether the January release will include further explanations for the financial mismanagement identified by the auditors at the SAGM. 

This is a developing story and will be updated as details emerge.