Victims claim they paid deposits on homes never built, builder denies involvement
A 28-year-old Brampton man is facing criminal charges and two civil lawsuits over what multiple plaintiffs allege is a pre-construction real estate scam that defrauded GTA homebuyers of hundreds of thousands of dollars in deposits.
Moiz Kunwar has been charged by Peel Regional Police with fraud over $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime, related to deposits taken for pre-construction homes he allegedly had no right to sell.
At least nine homebuyers are believed to have been affected, including Janet Campbell, a Brampton resident who, along with six other plaintiffs, is suing Kunwar to recover nearly $170,000 in lost deposits.
“This hurt me a lot because I believed him, and I trusted him to have a home, and it didn’t happen,” Campbell told CBC.
She said Kunwar took her to a construction site to view a home she thought she had purchased, but the property was not hers.
After delays and false promises, Campbell says she was told her five-bedroom home would be ready by January 1. Trusting that timeline, she gave notice to her landlord. The home never materialized, and she was forced to use her savings on Airbnbs for herself and her grandchildren before finally securing a rental with borrowed funds.
Kunwar has denied all allegations of fraud. In a recent statement of defence filed in response to Campbell’s lawsuit, his lawyer argued that Kunwar was “simply a sales associate” who passed along payments to unnamed superiors and did not personally profit. The filing states that he believed the transactions were “lawful and legitimate” and based on timelines he received from others.
The defence also claims Kunwar helped arrange partial refunds for some plaintiffs, though no names or amounts were disclosed.
Pattern of misrepresentation
The legitimacy of Kunwar’s real estate dealings has been in question since at least 2021, when a CBC Toronto investigation reported that he was marketing pre-construction homes under a company name nearly identical to Paradise Developments Inc., a well-known, licensed GTA homebuilder.
Kunwar was promoting homes through Paradise Development Homes Limited (PDHL), an unaffiliated entity, and claimed financing was coming from a private lender called Empire Finance, where he was listed as president on a business card. However, Empire Finance was not registered in Ontario and is not a licensed lender or broker.
Paradise Developments Inc. publicly stated that it had no connection with Kunwar, PDHL, or Empire Finance and that Kunwar had no legal authority to sell their homes.
Despite this, Kunwar allegedly continued taking deposits as recently as 2024, with at least three homebuyers in Campbell’s lawsuit having signed their agreements last year.
Second lawsuit
In a separate lawsuit, a different plaintiff alleges they met Kunwar after CBC’s reporting in 2022 and were convinced of his legitimacy during a face-to-face meeting. According to an affidavit, Kunwar claimed Paradise had to deny involvement with him because their agreement was confidential. The plaintiff believed the explanation and proceeded to pay nearly $100,000 in deposits.
That plaintiff, represented by fraud recovery lawyer Norman Groot, filed a statement of claim in August 2024 and is now pursuing a default judgment after Kunwar failed to respond until a virtual court appearance last month, where he requested more time.
“We have seen this scenario many times,” said Groot. “Most frauds are a variation of the same sort of play: obtaining trust, a sense of urgency, a little bit of greed on behalf of the victim, lack of due diligence, and a combination of factors results in somebody making a decision they wish they never had.”
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Campbell says she’s sharing her story to prevent others from falling victim to similar schemes.
“It’s a hard lesson to learn,” she said. “I do want a home, but I’m scared, because now I don’t know if it’s going to be the same thing again. How do I believe somebody or trust somebody now?”
The allegations against Kunwar have not yet been tested in court.
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