The Real Estate Council of Ontario administers licensing and professional regulatory and enforcement functions for the province’s 110,000 realtors and brokers.Sarah Silbiger/Reuters
The former registrar of the Real Estate Council of Ontario was contemplating an unusual deal with the principals of iPro Realty Ltd. just minutes after learning of a multimillion-dollar shortfall in consumer trust accounts held by one of Ontario’s largest brokerages.
That was among the findings of a recent report from Dentons LLP to investigate RECO’s mishandling of the iPro situation. It was commissioned by RECO’s board of directors on Aug. 22, the same day that registrar Joseph Richer left the organization.
After reviewing that report, the Ontario government served RECO with 15 days’ notice on Thursday of its plan to appoint an administrator to take over the regulator.
“I have notified RECO’s Board of my intention to appoint an administrator to restore public confidence and protect consumers,” Stephen Crawford, Public and Business Service Delivery Minister, wrote in a letter to Katie Steinfeld, RECO’s chair of the board. The minister posted the letter on X Thursday afternoon.
According to Mr. Crawford’s letter, the Dentons’ investigation “identifies significant issues with RECO’s practices, processes, and procedures, and raises serious questions about RECO’s organizational culture.”
He also wrote that he has “concerns about RECO’s ability to restore public confidence in the real estate services sector and to protect consumers during one of the largest purchases of their lives.”
Dentons delivered its final report to RECO on Oct. 30, but the authority declined to make it, or a previously filed interim report, available to the public. Mr. Crawford’s letter directed RECO to release the report before Nov. 14; the regulator published the “Confidential Final Report on the iPro Matters” on its website a few hours later at 6:30 p.m.
On Aug. 14, RECO announced that iPro was selling its assets to iCloud Realty Ltd. after the discovery of millions missing from iPro’s consumer deposit and realtor commission trust funds.
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The iPro matter ended up being the largest trust-fund-shortfall case in RECO’s history with more than $10-million missing.
The report says that when Mr. Richer learned about the trust-fund shortfall on April 19, 2025, within 21 minutes he sent an internal e-mail about iPro broker of record Fedele Colucci stating that the matter “would be a good one to get an undertaking to resign and never reapply.” This undertaking, or deal, promised not to seek further enforcement action against Mr. Colucci and his co-owner, Rui Alves.
The report concludes that while seeking to cut a deal to sell iPro and use the proceeds to return funds to the depleted trust was within the registrar’s power, Mr. Richer “deviated from RECO’s typical approach,” which would have included freezing bank accounts immediately and issuing a suspension order when trust funds were at risk.
RECO staffers told Dentons they raised concerns that Mr. Richer “appeared to have tunnel vision” on the plan even after a sale that was promised to be quick ended up taking three months, during which iPro’s bank accounts remained unfrozen and unmonitored until August.
“RECO’s response to the iPro Matters was largely attributable to the unilateral and sheltered decision-making of an empowered Registrar who failed to leverage the advice, resources, and expertise of the teams that surrounded him,” the report states.
While RECO administers licensing and professional regulatory and enforcement functions for the province’s 110,000 realtors and brokers, it’s not a government department but rather a non-profit corporation that collects fees from licensees to fund its operations.
Despite this arm’s-length relationship from government, the province retains an oversight role and Mr. Crawford’s notice is part of the formal legal process contained in legislation that gives ministers the authority to essentially fire the leadership of RECO.