Lawyer couple accused of stealing millions from homebuyers while law society stalled

A husband-and-wife law firm in Toronto has been shut down, lenders have moved to seize their family homes, and they’re facing 15 lawsuits and a police investigation after millions of dollars in client money went missing from the firm’s trust accounts.

The saga of Nicholas Cartel and his wife, Singa Bui, has plenty of twists and turns, not the least of which is what happened to the huge sums of money allegedly embezzled from Cartel & Bui LLP.

But it also reveals a part of the homebuying process that’s vulnerable to financial manipulation but isn’t closely scrutinized, and the inadequacy of the compensation for homebuyers or sellers who do fall victim.

In interviews and again during a court hearing on Thursday, Cartel asserted he never had a role in financially managing the firm that bears his name, never had access to the trust account and maintained a separate non-real-estate practice. His wife, he said, handled all that.