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CBC
19-07-2025
- Business
- CBC
Lawyers at centre of $7M real estate embezzlement case charged with fraud
A lavish-living Toronto lawyer couple are facing criminal charges after more than $7 million in client money was embezzled from their firm's trust accounts, much of it funnelled toward spending on luxury fashion and decor. Toronto police announced Thursday afternoon that Singa Bui, 42, who practised real estate law, has been charged with 42 counts including 24 of fraud over $5,000, 17 instances of criminal breach of trust and one count of possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000. Her husband and law partner, Nicholas Cartel, 61, whose legal practice focused on litigation and class actions, was charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Neither Bui nor a lawyer representing her immediately responded to CBC's emailed request for comment on Friday. Reached by phone, Cartel told CBC he will fight his charge vigorously, calling it baseless and "a ruse" to get him to provide evidence against his wife. "There's no evidence for my involvement whatsoever," he said. He said no one has told him what his fraud charge specifically relates to: who the alleged victim or victims are and what, exactly, he is alleged to have done wrong. "There's no information whatsoever. Absolute zero." Home-sale money misappropriated Nancy Marsilla said "it's about time" that the charges were filed. A former client of the firm, Marsilla says she is out $220,000 that Bui and Cartel's law firm had been holding onto after the sale of her home in 2021 while she settled her divorce. "It is devastating to know that someone in such a position of power and responsibility allegedly chose to manipulate and defraud the very clients they were hired to protect," she told CBC on Friday. "There must be stronger safeguards in place to protect people navigating major legal and financial transactions." The couple ran a boutique firm called Cartel & Bui LLP out of a smartly decorated office in Toronto's west end, until a number of real estate clients began complaining that money was going missing during home sales and purchases. Starting in September 2023, in a half-dozen southern Ontario home sales the firm handled, Cartel & Bui didn't pay off the sellers' mortgages as it was supposed to, according to records filed in civil lawsuits. Instead, it took the buyers' money and paid out the home equity to its client sellers, but held on to the rest, the records show. In perhaps the worst alleged embezzlement, some homebuyers who had agreed to acquire a house in Toronto forwarded more than $2 million to Cartel & Bui LLP in November toward the purchase. But within days, most of the funds disappeared from the firm's trust account. The deal never closed and the homebuyers have not recovered their money. Cartel, Bui and their firm are facing more than 15 lawsuits. In the course of those proceedings, Bui admitted in a sworn statement in November that she started pilfering client money from the firm's trust account as far back as 2014. She said she initially took smaller amounts"to make ends meet" but eventually embezzled tens of thousands of dollars at a time to fund "luxurious vacations," fine dining, private-school tuition for their children and "elegant furnishings and expensive art." Because her statement was compelled by a judge's order, it can't be used against her to support a criminal prosecution. In multiple interviews with CBC News and his court filings, Cartel has always strongly denied having any hand in the theft of client funds, and has repeatedly blamed his wife, who he says managed both their firm's and their household's finances. Neither Bui nor her lawyers have replied to CBC's multiple requests for comment over the last year. Police raided their midtown Toronto home in December and seized more than 1,000 items of high fashion and furniture, including designer dresses, footwear, suits, hats, ties and artwork. Both lawyers were also provisionally suspended from practising law in May of last year, while the Law Society of Ontario investigates. The Law Society has since brought disciplinary charges against Bui but not Cartel. The pair have already served a few weeks in jail, after they were both found in contempt of court last fall in the civil proceedings against them. No details on criminal allegations The police announcement on Thursday about the criminal charges against Bui and Cartel does not specify who the alleged victims are or any other details about the alleged criminal acts. But in a court application to get a warrant to search the couple's home in December, investigators said 20 people contacted them between December 2023 and May 2024 to make criminal complaints regarding Cartel & Bui LLP. That same document names more than 40 people plus banks and insurance companies as potential "victims." "Evidence uncovered to date substantiates the belief that the lawyers at Cartel & Bui LLP had been for years functionally using the firm's real estate trust account as a personal/business line-of-credit — unlawfully drawing on the trust account to fund a series of personal and business expenses with little-to-no-apparent-regard as to how those funds would be repaid," the police application says.
Toronto Sun
17-07-2025
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Toronto lawyer, partner face dozens of fraud, breach-of-trust charges
Photos of Toronto lawyers Nicholas Cartel and Singa Bui from their now-defunct website. Photo by Cartel & Bui LLP / / TORONTO SUN A Toronto lawyer is facing 41 fraud and breach-of-trust offences while her partner at the firm was also charged. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In a news release, Toronto Police alleged that, between 2021 and 2024, the accused, a lawyer and partner in the firm Cartel & Bui LLP, defrauded parties involved in numerous real estate transactions including her own clients, of more than $5,000. Singa Bui, 42, of Toronto, is charged with 24 counts of fraud over $5,000, 17 counts of criminal breach of trust, and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000. Nicholas Cartel, 61, of Toronto, a partner in the firm Cartel & Bui LLP, is separately charged with fraud over $5,000. Police announced the charges on Thursday. According to earlier media reports including from Toronto Sun columnist Michele Mandel, the two, who are a couple, have since shuttered their Liberty Village firm following lawsuits over previous allegations that they embezzled money they were holding in trust from real-estate deals. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In 2024, Ontario Superior Court Justice William Chalmers found the couple in contempt for not producing key financial records and answering questions about the missing cash. Bui admitted to pilfering millions in client money to support her and her family's lavish lifestyle. In April 2024, the Law Society Tribunal provisionally suspended the couple's licences to practise law. According to the ruling, by the time the bank froze the firm's account in December 2023, there was a shortfall of at least $2.5 million involving two clients who said money was deposited in trust and never paid out. Cartel didn't dispute these issues were of 'very serious concern,' the ruling said, but his position was that he didn't know at the time that trust monies 'had been misappropriated and/or mishandled.' Anyone who might be a victim of fraud can report the incident to police and to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre's online reporting system or by phone at 1-888-495-8501. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-2222, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477). RECOMMENDED VIDEO Toronto & GTA Toronto & GTA MMA Tennis Toronto Maple Leafs
CTV News
17-07-2025
- CTV News
2 Toronto lawyers charged with fraud in connection with real estate transactions
The Toronto Police Services emblem is photographed during a press conference at TPS headquarters, in Toronto on Tuesday, May 17, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov Two Toronto lawyers have been charged with fraud in connection with numerous real estate transactions, police say. In a news release on Thursday, police said a lawyer and partner at Cartel & Bui LLP allegedly defrauded an undisclosed number of parties, including her clients, between 2021 and 2024. Investigators identified her as 42-year-old Singa Bui. She is facing 42 charges, including 24 counts of fraud over $5,000 and 17 counts of criminal breach of trust. Police added that 61-year-old Nicholas Cartel, a partner in the firm, has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. According to the Law Society of Ontario, Bui and Cartel are currently suspended.
CBC
10-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
58 pairs of Manolo Blahniks among hundreds of items seized at lawyer couple's home amid fraud probe
Social Sharing A Toronto lawyer couple who lived a life of multimillion-dollar homes and high fashion are under investigation for fraud, possession of the proceeds of crime and laundering the proceeds of crime, after more than $7 million of their clients' money was stolen and funnelled into many of those luxury purchases. In the first public sign that police are taking concrete steps to investigate lawyers Singa Bui and Nicholas Cartel, officers executed a search warrant at the couple's midtown home in December and carted away hundreds of designer goods in a cube truck. A list of items police seized, filed in court earlier this year and obtained by CBC News, includes 58 pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes, 52 clothing items from designer label Alexander McQueen, 16 pairs of Christian Louboutin footwear, ties and other accessories from Hermes, and more than 20 accessories and pairs of shoes from Chanel. CBC's own research suggests the 1,153 items on the list could range in value from $150 for sandals to potentially more than $10,000 for an Oscar de la Renta jumpsuit, and may altogether be worth more than a million dollars. Bui, a real estate lawyer and managing partner at Cartel & Bui LLP, has already admitted in a civil court affidavit that she started pilfering client money from the firm's trust account as far back as 2014. She said she initially took smaller amounts "to make ends meet" but eventually embezzled tens of thousands of dollars at a time to fund "luxurious vacations," fine dining, private-school tuition for their children and "elegant furnishings and expensive art." She said in the sworn statement she had a shopping compulsion "as a coping mechanism for other stressors in my life including my family and my practice." Because her statement was compelled by a judge's order, it can't be used against her to support a criminal prosecution. Cartel, who focused on class actions and litigation, strongly denies having any hand in the misappropriation of client funds, and has repeatedly blamed his wife, who he says managed both their firm's and their household's finances. "There's no chance, absolutely no chance, that I'm implicated in this," Cartel told CBC News this week. He said police have not questioned nor even contacted him. Police allege couple were 'living well beyond their means' In its application to get the search warrant for the couple's home, Toronto police's fraud squad said it needed to seize the luxury items because credit card and bank records allegedly showed they were paid for with funds stolen from the law firm's clients — and thus the items could be evidence of laundering and possession of proceeds obtained by crime. "Preliminary financial records for Nicholas Cartel, Singa Bui and Cartel & Bui LLP…. indicate that Singa Bui and/or Nicholas Cartel had been living well beyond their means — including expenses well beyond what could be supported by their lawful income — and had resorted to embezzling funds from the firm's trust account to support their spending," says the police document filed in court. "When questioned or confronted about the firm's apparent failure to disburse funds appropriately, Singa Bui and/or Nicholas Cartel repeatedly and willfully misled their clients (and other persons) as to what had really occurred to their funds." Anthony Ingarra, who along with family and friends lost $410,000 when Cartel & Bui LLP failed to transfer them the proceeds from some private mortgage loans they had made, told CBC the value of the luxury goods seized by police is "just a splash in the pan for what's actually owing to the victims." Police and other court records put that figure at north of $7 million. Ingarra's family and friends are among the 20 people who contacted police between December 2023 and May 2024 to file criminal complaints, according to the search warrant records. He and his family and friends also sued Bui, Cartel and their firm and have a default judgment for $459,000 against Bui. Other victims have obtained default court judgments against Cartel and the law firm totalling nearly $5 million. Most of the victims were homebuyers or sellers who used Bui as their lawyer to close the sale and handle the money transfer. The case has underscored how anyone buying or selling a home — typically the most expensive transaction of a person's life — can be vulnerable to fraud by the very lawyers required by statute in some provinces to handle the transaction, with scant guarantees of any protection. "It makes me sick to my stomach," said Ingarra, who is himself a registered mortgage agent, last week. "You're literally stealing and taking advantage of innocent people that are trusting you on really a simple transaction, but one of the biggest ones in their lives." Law society disciplinary charges Both lawyers have been provisionally suspended by the Law Society of Ontario since April 2024 pending its probe of their conduct. In Bui's case, the LSO then filed a disciplinary notice against her in March alleging 13 instances of misappropriation of client funds and one count of failing to act with integrity and failing to encourage respect for the administration of justice. The latter count stems from Bui being found in contempt of court and subsequently jailed for 20 days for disregarding multiple orders from a judge in the civil cases to turn over records and answer questions about what she had done with the embezzled money. No disciplinary action has yet been filed against Cartel, who told CBC this week he will push to get his law licence reinstated and the Law Society's preliminary findings against him dismissed. He, too, was found in contempt of court in the same case last fall and jailed for 30 days, but says he plans to appeal that as well, citing records he obtained since then that he claims show he did nothing wrong. recent disciplinary ruling noted.
