RSG Law: two banks at nil and about $354,000 at a third

RSG Law Professional Corporation had three trust accounts at the Bank of Montreal, opened in October 2024 and closed in July 2025, and four accounts at TD, two of them listed as trust accounts, opened in May 2025 and closed in February 2026. Its four accounts at Scotiabank date from December 2025. They were still active on October 23, 2026, the day the firm and the funds it was required to hold in trust went into receivership, and its receiver, AlixPartners Restructuring, Inc., has since had them frozen. That is the firm's banking as the receiver has so far been able to assemble it, in a First Report dated November 10 and filed for the comeback hearing set for November 12. Every BMO and TD account shows a nil balance. RBC has told the receiver the firm was formerly a client and has yet to send account details; CIBC's counsel says the bank has no record of the account the receiver identified there; and National Bank says the firm does not, and did not, have any account with it, per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 1.1, paras. 3, 5; s. 3.1, para. 2.

The money is in the Scotiabank accounts: US$812 and C$12,250 in two of them, and US$1,023 and C$339,280 in the two listed as trust accounts. The receiver understands that the TD and Scotiabank accounts so listed are or were held in trust by the firm, but it "has yet to confirm their trust status," per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 3.1, para. 2(b) and n. 1. The Scotiabank funds, "totalling approximately $354,000," are available to fund the receiver's activities and its counsel's "but are not expected to be sufficient to complete the investigation. At this time, no other assets of RSG Law have been identified as available to fund those costs." So the receiver intends, "in the coming weeks," to move for a priority charge over all of the SARRO Properties, the real property listed in Schedule "A" to the related receivership order as amended and restated a second time on November 3 (the SARRO), to secure its own and its counsel's fees and disbursements for the court-directed investigation of the firm, per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 1.2, para. 1; s. 6.0, para. 2.

The October 23 orders that put the firm, its trust funds and a schedule of real property under AlixPartners were reported here on October 24. On November 3, on a motion by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce under s. 101 of the Courts of Justice Act and s. 243 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act, Justice Sean Dunphy amended and restated the property order a second time. The SARRO appoints the receiver over "the property assets and undertakings" of RSG Holdings Ltd. and RSG Oakville Holdings Inc., citing s. 243 of the BIA for those two; adds RSG Holdings' real property at 6605 Hurontario Street in Mississauga to Schedule "A"; and procedurally consolidates court file CL-26-00000388-0000, CIBC's application, into this proceeding, per the Second Amended and Restated Receivership Order, Nov. 3, 2026, recitals, paras. 5, 36 and Sched. "A", the Endorsement of Justice Dunphy, Nov. 3, 2026, heading and the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 2.0, para. 7.

CIBC's application record was served on September 8, as the order recites, per the Second Amended and Restated Receivership Order, Nov. 3, 2026, recitals. Justice Dunphy's endorsement of November 3 describes the application "in general terms" as one that "concerns the application – or misapplication – of trust funds by the RSG law firm in connection with various real estate transactions involving that firm." The parties agreed to fold the balance of it, all but the part concerning a Brampton property now owned by 17128134 Canada Inc., into the receivership order made on October 23 "in the form of an amended and restated receivership order," and the judge "reviewed the proposed terms of those amendments and approved them," per the Endorsement of Justice Dunphy, Nov. 3, 2026, paras. 1, 4.

Where the records are

On October 27 the receiver's counsel wrote to two individuals the receiver understands "are presently or were formerly associated with RSG Law," asking about the firm's books and records, bank accounts, business locations, real property interests, and current and former employees, officers, directors and shareholders. One of them, the report says, answered that the firm's records are kept electronically on a "local server" located on a laptop, that there are no physical client files, and that the laptop "is the same laptop that he uses to communicate with his counsel." In that account, the firm no longer occupies its former office, keeps no physical office and "handles remaining administrative matters remotely"; it owns no real property and has no current employees. The account numbers that individual gave for trust and general or operating accounts at BMO, TD and Scotiabank correspond, the receiver says, with those it identified. A list of the people employed by or associated with the firm from 2023 to 2026 came with the answer, and on November 5 and 6 the receiver's counsel wrote to each former employee for whom it had contact information, requiring them to preserve any books and records related to the firm's business in their possession or control. The other individual replied through counsel on November 6, "generally indicating that he does not have the requested information," and the receiver's counsel is following up, per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 3.2, paras. 1–3, 5.

The receiver arranged to image the laptop, the server and any other devices used for the firm's purposes. The individual who gave that account said the server could not be made available to the receiver until November 11, not being in Toronto. Under the October 23 order's protocol, the report explains, the Law Society of Ontario "would be responsible for reviewing relevant records to assess whether any documents are subject to solicitor-client privilege prior to the release of such documents to the Receiver." The receiver has said it will not review the imaged records until the review and privilege procedures are finalized with the Law Society, and that it will "hold the digital images of such devices (and will not review them)" until the two agree on a framework for that review, per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 3.2, para. 4; s. 3.3, paras. 1–2.

Six claims, under one caveat

The receiver has also read the court materials and supporting documents in the related proceedings and compiled a summary of claims, allegations and transactions, organized by property and entity, that includes claims involving properties outside the property receivership "concerning funds allegedly received or disbursed through RSG Law's accounts." The report sets out six, prefaced by a single sentence: "The following descriptions summarize allegations in those materials and are not findings of the Receiver," per the First Report of the Receiver, Nov. 10, 2026, s. 4.1, para. 1.