A Toronto real estate lawyer has been disbarred after admitting to misappropriating more than $12 million from homebuyers and sellers over several years, including forging bank records to conceal the theft from regulators.
A Toronto real estate lawyer who admitted to stealing millions of dollars from homebuyers and sellers across southern Ontario has been disbarred by the Law Society of Ontario.
Singa Bui’s licence to practise law was revoked following a disciplinary hearing in which the law society presented extensive evidence showing that she repeatedly withdrew client funds from her firm’s trust account over a period spanning nearly a decade. The evidence, which Bui did not contest, showed that the stolen funds totalled more than $12 million.
The law society told the tribunal that Bui misappropriated money from at least 13 separate clients and used the funds to support a lavish personal lifestyle. According to the hearing, Bui previously admitted the money was spent on luxury clothing and jewelry, home renovations, private school tuition, and travel.
The tribunal heard that Bui also falsified bank records in an effort to conceal the theft from regulators. In 2022, during a routine financial audit of her firm, Cartel & Bui LLP, Bui provided bank statements that had dozens of transactions deleted. Those missing transactions included payments to personal credit cards and other personal expenses. As a result, the auditor did not initially detect the misuse of the trust account.
The misconduct continued until 2023, when a complaint was made to the law society alleging misappropriation of client funds. By that point, millions of dollars had already been taken.
Following a brief deliberation, the disciplinary panel revoked Bui’s licence and ordered her to pay $100,000 in costs. The panel also ordered her to reimburse amounts paid out to victims through the law society’s compensation fund, which currently totals hundreds of thousands of dollars, with additional claims still pending. More than $6 million of the stolen funds has not been recovered.
Separately, Toronto police have laid dozens of criminal charges against Bui, including fraud over $5,000, criminal breach of trust, and possession of proceeds of crime. Her former law partner and husband, Nicholas Cartel, faces a fraud charge related to the same investigation and is also the subject of ongoing disciplinary proceedings.
