Law Times

Law Times • February 27, 2017 Page 5 www.lawtimesnews.com NEWS Lawyer sentenced to 3.5 years in jail BY JENNIFER BROWN Law Times A Toronto lawyer who faced 75 charges of fraud in a case involv- ing 140 condo inves- tors has been sentenced to three- and-a-half years in prison. Meerai Cho pleaded guilty in Divisional Court Wednesday to one count of criminal breach of trust and was sentenced on a joint submission with the Crown, according to her lawyer, William Trudell. The matter was heard before Justice Jamie Chaffe at the 1000 Finch Avenue West court. In September 2014, Cho was arrested and faced 75 charges related to fraud over $5,000, pos- session of property obtained by fraud and breach of trust. At that time, she said she transferred the condo purchas- ers' deposit funds, which she was holding in trust, to her cli- ent who was the developer of a North York building. The trans- fer of the funds to the developer was contrary to the rules of the Condominium Act. "What it came down to was a breach of trust — all the facts went into the one count as op- posed to 75 counts," Trudell says. "She didn't set out to defraud anyone. She didn't put any of the money in her own pocket." Cho claimed she transferred the money to the developer, Jo- seph Lee, through an "honest mistake" due to her inexperi- ence. Trudell says $13.5 million went through her trust account to the developer. The money came from pur- chasers of condo units in the Centrium condo project at 5220 Yonge Street in Toronto. The project had about 140 investors — at least 50 of them were in court on Wednesday. "Unfortunately, she trusted him completely, unquestionably and he took off with all the mon- ey and is hiding somewhere," says Trudell. As late as 2014, the developer would send Cho emails indi- cating he was sending her the money back. "She kept feeding his de- mands to save the project and continued to do that because she thought he was going to send the money back and the project would work," says Trudell. At one point, Cho mort- gaged her own home and gave $400,000 of her money to try and save the condo project. Trudell says Cho received none of the money and that was a sig- nificant factor in the court not ordering restitution. "If you get the fruits of the crime, then obviously restitution is appropriate, but in this case, because she got nothing, she has nothing and chances of repaying it are negligible and she was re- ceiving a penitentiary sentence on the scale of large-scale fraud," he says. Cho stopped practising law and agreed to temporary sus- pension of her licence in 2014 and will now lose her right to practise. Trudell described it as an "emotional day in court" as seven people read victim impact statements. "The victim impact state- ments were raw and emotional," says Trudell. "They are people who are still angry, of course, but when they realize she got not one penny, people might look at her a little differently." Some victims have made ap- plications to the Law Society of Upper Canada compensation fund and it is "anticipated the victims will be compensated. Tarion also has insurance for residential purchasers. Cho, originally a journalist in Korea, came to Canada and be- came a lawyer. Trudell says many of the vic- tim impact statements came from people who also came to Canada to invest and lost everything. "A lot of the victims said they had no faith in Canada and the justice system and legal system because lawyers are supposed to protect them," says Trudell. "She [Cho] stood up, apologized to them and told them not to lose faith in the legal system. She said there are a lot of wonderful law- yers; don't use me as an example." Cho will serve the sentence in a federal institution, likely Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ont. A Law Society of Upper Canada spokeswoman said in a prepared statement the Law Society's Compensation Fund "will move as quickly as possible to provide claimants with any grants for which they may be eli- gible, on the basis of the lawyer's dishonesty." e statement noted if grants are approved by a committee, that "eligible claimants should begin receiving fund grants in the spring." If approved, claimants im- pacted between September 2010 and July 2013 would receive up to $150,000 from the fund. "In September of 2016, the Law Society increased the Com- pensation Fund per claimant limit from $150,000 to $500,000 to help further protect the pub- lic for claims involving lawyers," said a spokeswoman. ere will also be a separate Law Society hearing for Cho that takes place on March 8. LT Meerai Cho pleaded guilty in Ontario pro- vincial court Wednesday to one count of criminal breach of trust. 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