“One billion, here we come,” the wealthy Toronto doctor wrote in an email to his business partner in 2013.At the time, Stanley Bernstein still seemed convinced he and Norma Walton were building a real estate empire together. Walton — a family lawyer turned property developer — appeared to have a money-making talent for buying, renovating and selling “fixer-upper” properties through Rose & Thistle Group Ltd., the company she co-founded with her husband. Bernstein — Toronto’s most famous “diet doctor” — had the funds to back her.He had put more than $100 million into dozens of properties he jointly owned with the Waltons, ranging from a Scarborough townhouse complex to multi-storey office buildings.At first, the arrangement seemed positive. And though they agreed he would have to sign off on any major moves, Bernstein appeared to trust his partner to manage their portfolio. That was before the accountant for Bernstein’s network of diet clinics began asking probing questions about Walton’s failure to deliver financial reports. It was also before the physician learned she had used some of his money to buy, live in and renovate a $10 million mansion down the road from him in the Bridle Path, perhaps Canada’s most exclusive neighbourhood.This spring, a jury found Walton, 49, guilty of two counts of theft for diverting $2.2 million of Bernstein’s money to her company and personal bank accounts after taking out $6 million in mortgages on two Don Mills Rd. office buildings without his consent. She used some of the money to pay off personal credit card debt.Throughout her trial, Walton maintained she had a “colour of right” to borrow and use the money as she saw fit — and that she had no intent to defraud or steal from Bernstein.The mother of four is facing possible prison time at a sentencing hearing beginning Friday. She was acquitted of fraud relating to a se ...
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