Vancouver Canucks' family member claims a 'plot' to disown him unjustly
The Aquilini family, known for their ownership of the Vancouver Canucks NHL team and numerous other holdings, including Vancouver's Rogers Arena, has found itself embroiled in a legal dispute. This week, Matteo Aquilini, the son of Paolo Aquilini, filed a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court against his grandfather, Luigi Aquilini, and uncles Roberto and Francesco Aquilini.
The lawsuit alleges a retaliatory conspiracy that led to Matteo's disinheritance from a family trust and exclusion from family business. The specific individuals named in connection with the 2015 restructuring decision of the Luigi and Elisa Aquilini Legacy Trust within the family are Luigi Aquilini and Elisa Aquilini.
The legacy trust, set up in 2015, was structured in a way that allegedly contravened the previous trust. Matteo claims that his grandmother, Elisa Aquilini, was gravely ill at the time she signed critically important documents related to the legacy trust.
The lawsuit states that Elisa's death in 2015 left a "profound void" in the family. The family was further unsettled in 2020 when one family member accused another of sexual assault during their childhood. This incident, coupled with the restructuring of the legacy trust, seems to have exacerbated the family's already heightened acrimony.
In 2022, another of Paolo's sons, Christian Aquilini, filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal against his employer, the Vancouver Canucks Limited Partnership, due to alleged threats by his uncles. Christian stopped working due to "severe emotional distress" stemming from these incidents.
Matteo alleges that after his father informed his uncles about the sexual assault allegations, they conspired to retaliate against him. The defendants (Luigi, Francesco, and Roberto Aquilini) are accused of wrongfully exercising control over the legacy trust to disinherit Matteo and his siblings.
The defendants took retaliatory steps from February 2020 onward to actively exclude Paolo and his children from the family and the family business. Matteo seeks damages for breach of trust, breach of fiduciary duty, conspiracy, and unjust enrichment.
Francesco and Roberto were allegedly appointed as beneficiaries of the trust under a veil of secrecy. The lawsuit names the defendants both personally and as trustees of the Luigi and Elisa Aquilini Legacy Trust.
This report was first published in September 2025. The trust's assets are potentially more than $320 million. The legal proceedings are ongoing, and the Aquilini family's internal disputes continue to unfold in the public eye.
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