Former star real estate broker Christine Girouard and her partner Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin have just been sentenced for orchestrating a scheme during the pandemic involving bogus purchase promises aimed at creating bidding wars, revealed by The Press in May 2023.
Found guilty across the board by their profession’s disciplinary committee, the two members of the couple, who have become parents, have their licenses suspended for 15 years in the case of M.me Girouard and 10 years for Mr. Dauphinais-Fortin. Their sentence will however be reduced by one year, because the two business partners’ licences had been provisionally suspended since May 19, 2023, and the committee considers that this year has already been served.
The former star of the reality TV show Numbers 1 in Casa is also fined $50,000. The former Dauphinais-Fortin broker, who used his girlfriend at the time and a long-time friend to make bogus purchase promises, will have to pay $10,000.
For his part, the buyer duped by Christine Girouard and Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin does not yet know if he will be compensated by the Real Estate Brokerage Compensation Fund (FICI). More than a year after the fraudulent scheme was revealed, his file is still under investigation.
“My concern is that it will take another two years,” he explained on the phone to The Press. I am considering pursuing civil and criminal charges against the brokers.”
His employer provided him with legal assistance, says the buyer, who paid $40,000 more for his house because of the fraudulent scheme.
Why not banned for life?
In both decisions, the disciplinary committee explains that the actions attributed to Mr.me Girouard and Mr. Dauphinais-Fortin “are of great seriousness,” but since they are not in the same situation as other brokers who have had their permits revoked in the past, “the committee is not prepared to impose a permanent suspension” of their right to practice, especially since they have no previous disciplinary record.
The committee believes, however, that it is important to add monetary sanctions.
“After hearing the parties’ representations and considering the matter, the committee decides that the suspensions must be accompanied by significant fines in order to dissuade the respondent and any professional from engaging in such a course in the future,” the committee wrote in the Decision on Sanction.
As for the difference between the sanctions imposed on Mr.me Girouard and Mr. Dauphinais-Fortin, the committee considers at the end of the evidence that “it is Mr.me Girouard who thought up and initiated the fraudulent scheme.”
This is following the publication of the article by The Press on the bogus promises to purchase on May 17, 2023, that the Organisme d’autoréglementation du courtage immobilier du Québec (OACIQ) initiated proceedings against the two offending real estate brokers. After two weeks of hearings before the disciplinary committee in the fall of 2023, Christine Girouard was found guilty in January 2024 of all counts on four buildings and Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin of all counts on two buildings.
The hearings on the sanctions to be taken against the couple took place on April 29 in Brossard. The president of the disciplinary committee had promised to render his decision last June.
Christine Girouard and Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin have 30 days from the signing of the judgments on August 29, 2024 to appeal the decision.
If the brokers appeal their case, the 13 days of hearings before the disciplinary committee scheduled for Mme Girouard from October 16 to November 9 will have to be postponed. Last spring, a new disciplinary complaint concerning nine buildings with thirteen charges was filed by the OACIQ trustee against Christine Girouard.
Without a license, she “coaches” brokers
Since losing her real estate brokerage license, Christine Girouard has been advertising herself on social media as a “coach for successful real estate brokers.”
On his Instagram account, Mme Girouard regularly offers “tip of the day” in video.
PHOTO TAKEN FROM A SCREENSHOT
On her Instagram account, Christine Girouard regularly offers “tip of the day” in video.
The 1er Last August, the former real estate broker stated that 90% of her training clients were real estate brokers and 10% were entrepreneurs. “It wants to be in the six figures per month, good, I can get you there, I know how,” she tells the camera about entrepreneurs, “but it doesn’t want to spend in the five figures per month.”
In another video dated July 26, she claims to be angry with people who do not exploit their potential. “I don’t know if I have a gift or it’s experience, but I see it, the potential in the world, enormous,” she says, staring into the camera and adding: “I’m like René and you’re Céline.”
As coaching is not a brokerage act regulated by the Real Estate Brokerage ActMme Girouard does indeed have the right to “coach” real estate brokers and give them advice on real estate brokerage, confirms the OACIQ.
Read the article “Broker Christine Girouard and her partner found guilty”
Read the article “New complaint against star broker Christine Girouard”