Real-estate attorney must serve 20 days in prison for ignoring court orders
A real-estate lawyer who has admitted to embezzling $7 million from her clients will serve 20 days in prison for contempt, according to a report from CBC.
Singa Bui "consistently ignored orders of the court and complied only when faced with a warrant for her arrest or a threat of incarceration," Ontario Superior Court Justice William Chalmers said in sending her off to jail, according to the report.
At least 26 homebuyers and sellers in southern Ontario are suing Cartel & Bui LLP, Bui’s now defunct law firm.
Ontario Superior Court Justice William Chalmers has ordered Bui and Cartel to hand over documents and answer questions about where the money went. However, the firm has repeatedly failed to follow the orders over the past 10 months, triggering the contempt ruling, according to the report.
Last week, Bui – in a last-minute sworn statement in court – admitted that she started stealing from her firm's trust account as early as 2014, said the CBC.
She said that she initially used the money for “small things”, like paying for bills. That, however, developed into her using the money to purchase luxury items like Prada handbags and Christian Louboutin shoes.
"I would then try to replace that money with funds received from subsequent real estate transactions. Over time, it became increasingly difficult to keep up with the repayments, and I was in more and more debt, requiring a constant flow of new client funds to pay off the debt."
Bui admitted that she and her husband “lived well beyond” their means.
"An amount that I cannot quantify at this time" was also used to fund "unprofitable" business ventures by her and her husband, Bui said, according to CBC.
Previously, a former TD Bank employee was accused of helping illegally move millions of dollars from the U.S. to Colombia.
What to do if someone admits to embezzling?
Bui's statement also indicated that the stolen money is mostly gone. This means that the victims do not have to try to recover the money but instead seek compensation from a special Law Society of Ontario fund that can help victims of fraud by lawyers, said Thierry Cohen-Scali, one of the plaintiffs, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Nicholas Cartel – Bui’s husband and partner at the law firm – has been ordered to go back to prison two days after Bui gets out next month. Cartel must serve the 10 days remaining on his own contempt sentence.
This comes after Cartel was wrongfully released early, according to CBC.
The judge handed down a 30-day sentence to Cartel on Oct. 25, and the judge ordered him to serve the sentence in full. However, Cartel was granted the standard early release of a criminal sentence after serving two-thirds of the sentence.
"I'm shocked," Chalmers said before issuing an arrest warrant for Cartel. "Even the jail doesn't follow my orders. What can I say?"
Cartel had repeatedly claimed he did not know of any misappropriation of funds. The judge had repeatedly said this was implausible, according to the reboot.
Cartel was ordered to surrender himself to the Toronto South Detention Centre on Dec. 14, said the CBC.
Police are also investigating the case, but they have not decided whether to lay criminal charges against the couple of lawyers. If the police decide to do so, that could be years in prison for both Bui and Cartel.
Previously, the estate of a woman who previously worked as an administrator for both the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCHA) and died in 2012 was ordered to pay over $650,000 for her crimes.
