A condo corporation in Concord, Ont., is alleging its former property manager, Norbert (Bert) Berger, made it “the victim of an elaborate conspiracy” to use $200,000 of its legally protected reserve funds to profit personally from risky cryptocurrency transactions.
It’s the second corporation to make similar allegations of an investment scheme involving a company called Pink Piggy Investment Group Inc., where Mr. Berger was a corporate officer and shareholder. The first incident came to light in a Globe and Mail investigation in 2023 that resulted in the suspension of Mr. Berger’s licence to manage condos. Ultimately, Mr. Berger received a permanent ban in 2024 in a scathing ruling from the Licence Appeal Tribunal. Vice-chair Colin Osterberg wrote: “The Tribunal can have no confidence that [Mr. Berger] is prepared to act in accordance with the law or with honesty and integrity in the future.”
York Region Commercial Condominium 652 is a mix of retail stores in a strip-mall style building at 3200 Steeles Ave. W. According to a statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court, it had contracted Mr. Berger for his management services for more than 20 years – most recently with his L & H Property Management Inc. company, with no issues.
The claim states that in late 2022 Mr. Berger won approval from the YRCC 652 condo board to invest $200,000 with Pink Piggy on the claim that it was providing 12 per cent interest on a “guaranteed investment certificate” that would be compliant with the Condominium Act’s legislated rules that bar the not-for-profit companies from high-risk investments with funds meant for capital projects and maintenance.
At the same time, Mr. Berger was making the same pitch to a residential condo, York Condominium Corporation 25, which invested $500,000 in Pink Piggy. By the fall of 2023, YCC 25’s condo lawyer, Evan Holt of Shibley Righton LLP, began to sound the alarm in letters to residents about the unlawful nature of the Pink Piggy investment – noting that a scheduled interest payment of $30,000 had been missed in May, 2023 – and that the securities regulators had issued bulletins warning that Pink Piggy was not registered to trade securities.
After The Globe and Mail published a story about Mr. Berger’s YCC 25 activities on Sept. 20, the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario (CMRAO) began a probe that resulted in Mr. Berger’s suspension on Oct. 13.
“As soon as the CMRAO became aware of the situation, we initiated a prompt but thorough inspection. Condo board members and others came forward and provided evidence,” said Tsehaie Makonnen, CMRAO director of communications and outreach. “The CMRAO will not tolerate advising or soliciting condominiums to make illegal investments of this nature, which put owners at serious risk.”
In October, 2023, the CMRAO also notified clients of Mr. Berger’s company L & H that it was in danger of losing its licence to manage condo properties, a step which the CMRAO followed through with by Oct. 30.
According to its statement of claim it wasn’t until YRCC 652’s new property manager – Argo Property Management, hired in the wake of Mr. Berger’s suspension – tried to obtain information from Mr. Berger that the condo realized it might have a problem. As Argo requested records of the Pink Piggy transaction Mr. Berger allegedly offered a $12,000 cheque for interest owed to the company and advised that the Pink Piggy GIC had “auto-renewed” for another year. When Argo and YRCC questioned the validity of this auto-renewal and demanded the return of the $200,000 they received no further contact with Mr. Berger.
“We’ve served them; we haven’t had any responses to our claims,” said lawyer Chris Tonks with Prouse, Dash & Crouch LLP, who is representing YRCC 652. “Frankly speaking, they just want to really get their money back and put this to bed.”
Mr. Tonks couldn’t comment on whether any other of Mr. Berger’s former clients had invested money in the Pink Piggy scheme, but urged anyone who had to contact him.
Mr. Berger did not respond to requests for comment on the YRCC 652 situation, though in 2023 he spoke to The Globe and denied that there was any wrongdoing regarding the almost identical set of facts with YCC 25. “What harm has it done? Nothing, nothing has happened,” he said in a 2023 phone interview.
In another new legal filing from YCC 25, made in January, 2025, the condo states that while Mr. Berger did return most of its $500,000 (minus $30,000) they allege there was harm done and are seeking more than $325,000 in further damages for breach of contract, negligence, unjust enrichment and damages related to legal costs incurred by the condo.
Amid the claim is an allegation of incompetent record keeping that resulted in the failure of a critical annual general meeting, which in turn prompted the appointment of a court-ordered independent Inspector (William Stratas of Eagle Audit Advantage) who found that Mr. Berger had breached his duty of care regarding that 2021 AGM and election, a finding upheld by a second expert hired by YCC 25. According to the claim the condo’s costs related to this inspection reached $192,308.
Mr. Tonks notes that while the CMRAO can revoke Mr. Berger’s licence, it doesn’t have the statutory ability to recover funds lost by a rogue manager.
“Okay, you did bad lose your licence, but if you’ve taken a whole lotta money through mismanagement or some other means, [condo corporations] are having to recover civilly,” he said. “Unless the CMRAO is going to institute some changes that may require condo managers to be bonded or have some insurance that backs them.”
None of the allegations against Mr. Berger have been proven in court.