"A boutique Toronto law firm at the centre of a $7-million embezzlement case appears to have passed a financial spot check by the Law Society of Ontario years after the managing partner admits she began stealing client money to fund a lavish lifestyle. In the summer of 2022, when the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) did a routine financial check-up on Cartel & Bui LLP, it didn't raise any red flags even though the firm's bank statements showed nearly $140,000 of client money had been withdrawn from the firm's trust account in just one month for payments to American Express, while another $2,090 was paid to a child-care centre."
"Filings in court and at the LSO's disciplinary tribunal show that the embezzlement at the firm, founded by Singa Bui and her husband, Nicholas Cartel, continued for another seven months before someone complained to the law society about possible misappropriation of money. It took yet another seven months before a law society investigator visited the firm's offices and requested its financial records, and then another five months before the firm was put into trusteeship. At that point, more than $7 million had been stolen from clients, mostly homebuyers and sellers across Southern Ontario."
""They didn't do their job," said Nancy Marsilla, a former client who was out more than $200,000 that the firm had been holding onto after the sale of her home in 2021 while she settled her divorce. "Had they looked at the transactions deeper, and audited them the way that they should have been audited, then a lot of heartache, a lot of problems would have been avoided.""
Cartel & Bui LLP passed a Law Society of Ontario spot check in summer 2022 despite trust-account withdrawals that included nearly $140,000 in one month and payments to personal expenses. Embezzlement by the managing partner and related transactions continued for months before a complaint triggered an investigation. A law society investigator did not visit the firm until seven months after the complaint, and the firm entered trusteeship five months after that, by which time more than $7 million had been stolen from mostly homebuyers and sellers across Southern Ontario. Victims and legal experts criticized the Law Society's oversight and audit response.
Read at www.cbc.ca
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