Glamorous lawyer couple 'stole millions from clients to fund their lavish lifestyle'

A glamorous lawyer couple from Toronto have been accused of embezzling nearly $7million from their clients to fund their lavish lifestyle.

Nicholas Cartel and his wife Singa Bui, partners at the now defunct, Cartel & Bui, LLP, reportedly spent more than a million dollars on luxury wares from Hermes and Christian Dior, $2,190 a month on child care, and took out a $1.2 million mortgage for a posh home in affluent midtown Toronto.

In 2022, when money started to go missing from the firm's trust account, a court-ordered forensic audit was conducted revealing a 'misappropriation of funds,' Law Society of Ontario reported.

Last month, the couple were found in contempt of court for failing to answer questions or hand over any financial records.

Cartel - whose wife managed the finances of their firm and various accounts, as well as their household - has repeatedly denied any involvement, while Bui said through a lawyer, 'he isn't at fault.'

However, Ontario Superior Court Justice William Chalmers called it 'inconceivable' that Cartel doesn't know what happened to the money and 'inconsistent with common sense' that he wouldn't have asked his wife about it, CBC reported.

The couple was accused of embezzling $7million from their real estate clients 

Bui was responsible for the real estate side of their practice while Cartel handled class actions and litigation.

At one point, when Cartel took out the million-dollar mortgage on his family's home, he testified under oath that the loan was to pay for repairs in his home. He claimed that 'massive pipes blew up spewing a street's worth of sewage into the house.'

The forensic audit found that the money was deposited into the firm's trust account, revealing that the couple was mixing business with their personal finances.

Last fall, Cartel & Bui had represented seven sellers, but never paid off its clients' mortgages as they were  supposed to, according to lawsuits by the buyers. 

Instead, the lawsuits alleged, the couple  took the buyers' cash, paid out the home equity to the sellers and pocketed the rest, amounting to a staggering $3.3 million.

In what CBC described as 'perhaps the worst alleged embezzlements,' would-be homeowners sent more than $2million to the firm for the purchase of a Toronto home. 

Most of the money went missing within days, the property purchase never closed and the buyers did not get their money back.

The former office of Cartel & Bui, LLP in Toronto

'Although they must know what happened to the funds, they have refused to provide this information,' a judge said in a ruling last month. 

'Instead of attempting to comply with the orders to the best of their ability, I find that the defendants have taken active steps to hide their finances and to frustrate the court's efforts to determine what happened.'

Cartel said his wife was hospitalized in February with a mental health condition after she became unwell in November - making it difficult for him to recover all the work files, as well as to speak to his wife about the missing money.

In December, Bui said through her lawyer that Cartel was 'not responsible for the improper transferring of trust funds, nor is any other associate or employee of the firm.'

In April the couple had their law licenses suspended. 

Last week, Cartel told the news outlet that he plans to challenge the the judge's decision, claiming 'he ignored the facts.'

'I've delivered all documents in my possession, delivered thousands of pages of real estate files… I will be bringing a motion to either address this, to have it set aside or varied in some regard,' he said.

Two experts who specialize in professional legal discipline told CBC News that they believe that the couple could face penalties that could include fines or even imprisonment.

They also explained that they will also likely draw misconduct charges from Ontario's professional regulatory body for lawyers