In a 2022 promotional video, Robby Clark stands at the bow of a yacht, arms raised to the sky as a camera circles overhead. "You can stick me in the desert with nothing and I’m going to come out owning the desert," he says. Less than two years later, his Ontario real estate empire is under bankruptcy protection, owing hundreds of lenders tens of millions of dollars.
A small group of landlords who own hundreds of rental properties across the province have run out of money, owe over $144 million in unpaid loans and face dozens of lawsuits from creditors, according to documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.