A couple of lawyers from Toronto who lived a life of multimillion -dollar housing and high fashion is under investigation by fraud, the possession of crime revenues and the washing of crime income, after more than $ 7 million from their customers’ money were stolen and channeled in many of those luxury purchases.
In the first public signal that the police are taking concrete measures to investigate the lawyers Singa Bui and the Nicholas poster, the officers executed a search warrant in the home of the center of the couple in December and carried hundreds of designer products in a cube truck.
A list of items that the police seized, presented in the Court earlier this year and obtained by CBC News, includes 58 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes, 52 clothing items on the label of designer Alexander McQueen, 16 pairs of shoes Christian Louboutin, Bonds and other accessories of Hermes and more than 20 accessories and pairs of Chanel shoes.
CBC’s own investigation suggests that the 1,153 items in the list could vary in value of $ 150 so that potentially more than $ 10,000 for an Oscar de la Renta monkey, and more than one million dollars can be worth.
BUI, real estate lawyer and partner manager of Cartel & Bui LLP, has already admitted in an affidavit of the Civil Court that began stealing money from the clients of the company’s fiduciary account since 2014.
She said that she initially took smaller amounts “to reach the end of the month”, but finally embezzled tens of thousands of dollars at the same time to finance “luxurious vacations”, fine meals, registration of private school for their children and “elegant furniture and expensive art.”
She said in the affidavit that she had a purchasing compulsion “as a coping mechanism for other stressful factors in my life, including my family and my practice.”
Because his statement was forced by the order of a judge, it cannot be used against him to support a criminal prosecution.
Cartel, which focused on class actions and litigation, strongly denies having some hand in the undue appropriation of customer funds, and has repeatedly blamed his wife, who, according to him, the finances of his company and his home.
“There is no possibility, absolutely no possibility, to be involved in this,” poster told CBC News this week. He said the Police did not question even contacted him.
Police claim that the couple was “living far beyond their possibilities”
En su solicitud para obtener la orden de allanamiento de la casa de la pareja, el escuadrón de fraude de la policía de Toronto dijo que debía confiscar los artículos de lujo porque los registros de tarjetas de crédito y bancos supuestamente mostraron que fueron pagados con fondos robados de los clientes del bufete de abogados, y por lo tanto, los artículos podían ser evidencia de lavado y posesión de los ingresos obtenidos por el crimen obtenidos por el crimen.
“Preliminary financial records for Nicholas Cartel, Singa Bui and Cartel & Bui LLP …. Indicate that Singa Bui and/or Nicholas Cartel had been living far beyond their means, including expenses far beyond what could be backed by their legal income in court in court in court.
“When asked or faced on the apparent failure of the company to disburse funds appropriately, Singa Bui and/or Nicholas Cartel repeatedly and deliberately deceived its customers (and other people) about what had really happened in their funds.”
Anthony Ingarra, who together with family and friends lost $ 410,000 when Cartel & Bui LLP could not transfer the profits of some private mortgage loans that they had done, he told CBC that the value of luxury products seized by the police is “only a splatter in the pan for what is really due to victims.”
Police and other judicial records put that figure north of $ 7 million.
Ingarra’s family and friends are among the 20 people who contacted the Police between December 2023 and May 2024 to file criminal complaints, in accordance with the records of the search warrant. He and his family and friends also sued Bui, Cartel and his firm and have a predetermined judgment For $ 459,000 against BUI.
Other victims have obtained judicial judgments of non -compliance against poster and the law firm with a total of almost $ 5 million.
Most of the victims were housing buyers or vendors who used Bui as their lawyer to close the sale and handle money transfer.
The case He has stressed The way in which anyone who bought or sells a house generally the most expensive transaction of a person’s life can be vulnerable to fraud by the same lawyers required by the statute in some provinces to handle the transaction, with few guarantees of any protection.
“My stomach sick,” said Ingarra, who is a registered mortgage agent, last week. “You are literally stealing and taking advantage of innocent people who trust you in a simple transaction, but one of the greatest of their lives.”
Disciplinary positions of the society of the law
Both lawyers have been provisionally suspended by the Ontario Law Society since April 2024, waiting for his investigation of his conduct.
In the case of BUI, the LSO then presented a Disciplinary notice Against her, claiming 13 cases of improper appropriation of client funds and a position of not acting with integrity and not encouraging respect for the administration of justice.
The last count is derived from BUI that is in contempt of the Court and subsequently imprisoned for 20 days for ignoring multiple orders of a judge in civil cases to deliver records and answer questions about what he had done with the embezzlement money.
No disciplinary action against poster has been presented, who told CBC this week that he will press to restore his legal license and the law society Preliminary findings against him dismissed.
He was also found in contempt of the Court in the same case the past fall and imprisoned for 30 days, but says he plans to appeal that too, citing records that he obtained since then that he states that he shows that he did nothing wrong.
In general, the presumptive punishment of the society of the Ontario Law for a lawyer who misappaires the customer’s money is to undo them, like a recent disciplinary decision noted.
