‘Betrayal of trust’: Hamilton cardiologist has yet to pay hundreds of thousands owed to wife he abused

Nearly a year has passed since Hamilton cardiologist Dr. Amin Mulji was handed a suspended sentence and two years probation for assaulting and threatening his wife.

Yet hundreds of thousands of dollars he was ordered to pay his former wife Naz Sayani have not yet been paid.

And his future as a doctor remains unclear as disciplinary investigations into his medical licence remain ongoing.

Mulji has so far failed to respond to a civil case where the court ordered him to pay Sayani hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there is also an ongoing family court matter.

Mulji's case highlighted the challenges with how the regulatory body that licenses physicians tracks when doctors in Ontario are charged criminally. It remains the practice in Ontario that doctors are required to self-report their own charges to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPSO), which Mulji failed to do for years. It wasn't until The Spectator notified the CPSO that the charges were made public and listed on his doctor profile.

A year after his April 2022 plea, the college website lists his conviction and sentence. Yet there has been no update on an investigation into his actions, and no hearing dates before the disciplinary tribunal have been posted.

Similarly, spokespersons for Hamilton Health Sciences, where Mulji had privileges, and McMaster University, where he taught, said he remains on a leave of absence and that no further information could be shared. He can still see patients in his office, but not in hospital.

Mulji initially faced multiple charges including sexual assault, assault and threatening going back as far as 1977. But when it came time for the criminal case to be resolved, he pleaded guilty to a single count of assault stemming from a July 2014 incident where he hit his wife over the head, causing a concussion, and to threatening death in messages she recorded between 2017 and 2018.

Despite Sayani's protests, which she voiced to the judge in her victim impact statement, the other charges were withdrawn.

Sayani sued Mulji for verbal, emotional, physical, mental and financial abuse, including unpaid wages for work she did at his medical practice. According to court records, Mulji never responded or participated in the civil case. In November, Superior Court Justice Kim Carpenter-Gunn, noting that Mulji was in default, made a judgment in Sayani's favour.

Mulji is ordered to pay more than $600,000 in damages and lost wages, plus both retroactive and future interest.

This breaks down to $325,000 for assault and sexual battery, $50,000 for the intentional infliction of mental suffering," $140,000 in lieu of pay for failing to give reasonable notice on the termination of her job, more than $26,000 in unpaid wages, $50,000 in punitive damages and $26,000 in costs. The court further ordered more than $35,000 in retroactive interest.

This is in addition to more than $255,000 that the court ordered Mulji to pay Sayani in June 2021 for dividends that Mulji's business declared she was paid, but which she was not.

Both orders are also subject to future interest.

A lawyer for Mulji has not responded to a request for comment.

Sayani filed a lengthy affidavit for the civil court case, providing details of what she allegedly endured that were never heard in criminal court due to the plea. Sayani also testified to the abuse in civil court. However, Mulji did not participate.

In the affidavit she alleges she endured verbal, emotional, mental, financial and physical abuse over the decades of their relationship.

Mulji's violence and threats continued and worsened over the years, until they escalated so significantly that I no longer felt safe and death seemed imminent," Sayani said in the sworn affidavit.

She eventually reported her abuse to police in Hamilton, Toronto and Niagara. She made recordings of their conversations, detailing abuse and threats.

At various times, Mulji has slapped, pushed, choked, punched, kicked and sexually assaulted me," she claimed in the affidavit, which details specific incidents.

She said that around 2003 he began to sporadically sleep away from home until he eventually stopped living at the family home entirely, saying he was working late. She said he continued to come home and abusive behaviour continued.

At times she had to be treated in hospital, including for an injured elbow and concussion.

Sayani claims that after the concussion in 2014, Mulji seemed to be more volatile and angry. Death threats escalated up until 2018 when he was charged by Hamilton police.

In criminal court last year Ontario Court Justice Bernd Zabel said: It is apparent that a perplexing dichotomy exists between the accused's public and professional persona and his private personal."

In the affidavit Sayani said she documented some 66 death threats. Many of the arguments were about finances.

I lost my self-worth as a result of this abuse," she said in the affidavit, calling his incessant abuse" a betrayal of trust."

Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com