THE MOST CHARMING FRAUDSTER IN REAL ESTATE

From a young age, Courtney Wallis Simpson had big plans, and she was ruthlessly ambitious when it came to achieving them. To finance her lifestyle, she hatched a series of property schemes that would cost her victims-more than 100 of them-millions

- Sarah Treleaven

When his inbox pinged early one summer day in 2020, Dundas Kwok adjusted his glasses, leaned forward and clicked. The message was from a real estate consultant named Courtney Wallis Simpson, and she had two exclusive, yet-to-be-advertised listings she thought he might be interested in. Kwok wasn't familiar with the sender's name, but he was always on the lookout for potential investments. The 67-year-old had been in real estate development for almost two decades, working as the director of marketing and sales for King Square Shopping Centre in Markham before founding a brokerage and then moving into development. His curiosity piqued, Kwok wrote Simpson back, asking for more information.

The first site, she explained, was a vacant lot in Barrie zoned for townhouses, with a sticker price of $3 million. The second, a $2.5-million listing in Stouffville on more than four acres, was an open plot with potential for land-banking. That meant Kwok could acquire the property and then develop it down the line when it would be most profitable.

The more he learned, the keener Kwok became about the opportunities Simpson was pitching. The real estate market, which had stalled in the early months of Covid, was bouncing back. Mortgage rates hadn't been this low in three years. And as work-from-home became the new normal, cramped downtown homeowners were turning to bedroom communities like Barrie and Stouffville for more square footage and outdoor space. There was money to be made, and Kwok wanted to get in on it.