Reported by
There was an important real estate deal simmering. But it wasn’t going as planned.
Alleged mob boss Angelo Figliomeni and a Toronto-area developer were wrestling with how to handle investors who appeared to be backing out of a $30-million development deal, according to police notes on a wiretapped July 2019 phone conversation between the two.
They appeared to have a strategy for handling the situation. According to investigators’ synopsis of the call, the developer told Figliomeni, “You know we have a way we can fuck them.”
“I’ll wait even until we get the $2 million…Then I’ll say fuck you.”
Figliomeni made no objection, saying: “This is for me and you to know right?”
Figliomeni’s conversation with the developer was among thousands of calls wiretapped by police as they probed what investigators alleged was a powerful and dangerous Canadian faction of Italy’s ’Ndrangheta mafia, involved in illegal gambling and loan sharking in and around Toronto.
Just two weeks after this wiretapped call, Figliomeni and eight associates were arrested, with police alleging the group had laundered more than $70 million Canadian (US$51 million) through casinos “in only a few short years.”
Figliomeni did not respond to requests for comment sent via his lawyers. In court files, his lawyers have argued that police misrepresented innocuous conversations caught on wiretaps to suit their own ends.
Police during raids conducted in July 2019 as part of the Project Sindacato investigation.
The charges against Figliomeni and his associates were stayed, which means prosecutors decided not to pursue them in court although they were not dropped. Legal documents that reporters obtained from the case show that police also believed the group was laundering money through real estate in the Greater Toronto Area.
The July 2019 call with the developer was marked in police records as involving the “proceeds of crime.” However, the person he was speaking to was not identified. Two conversations between Figliomeni and other unnamed real estate developers also appeared in the investigative files.
But OCCRP and the Toronto Star managed to identify the developers caught in the wiretaps through the phone numbers listed in police records. They include a home builder with extensive projects across the Greater Toronto Area, and another heavily involved in local land, residential, and commercial development. None of the developers who spoke to Figliomeni on wiretap was charged with a crime.
While reporting on Figliomeni’s dealings, reporters also learned that he even intervened in a business dispute between one of his developer associates and a Canadian plastics industry pioneer.
All the while, Figliomeni was amassing an impressive property portfolio of his own.
Buying Up Properties
Property records show that Figliomeni — whose day job is selling Italian sandwiches and delivering baked goods through businesses he owns in Vaughan, according to police — is listed as the owner of eight houses across the Greater Toronto Area. Companies he directed have owned at least seven other properties, though some were sold after he came under police scrutiny.
Lawyers for Figliomeni did not respond to multiple requests for comment on his properties and relationships with developers. Asked for comment for a previous story about his relationships with employees at major Canadian banks, one of his lawyers told OCCRP: "Our client is neither participating nor commenting on your inquiries. You should draw nothing from his decision in that regard."
The criminal case against Figliomeni and his associates, known as Project Sindacato, collapsed in early 2021 after defense lawyers argued that police had inappropriately listened to phone calls between the accused and their lawyers. This ultimately led Canadian prosecutors to drop the case.
Police had to return CAN$35 million (US$27 million) worth of assets to Figliomeni and his alleged associates, including Ferraris, Rolex watches, and other luxury items. Investigators also released 27 homes that had been “restrained” during the investigation, meaning they could not be sold because police believed they were the proceeds of crime.
Ferraris seized by the York Regional Police in Canada.
Since then, Figliomeni and some of his associates have continued to buy up high-priced assets. Over the past three years, Figliomeni has purchased two homes in the York Region, north of Toronto, worth a combined $3.5 million, bringing the total number of properties in his name to eight, as of November 2024.
In November 2021, just 10 months after the Sindacato case collapsed, Figliomeni bought a $2.2-million (US$1.6 million) home in the upscale community of Kleinburg. No mortgage is currently listed against it, according to property records. The following year, he bought a $1.3-million home in the city of Vaughan, just north of Toronto.
Figliomeni has at least four mortgages on houses in his name from two major Canadian banks, OCCRP and The Star reported earlier this week. All four mortgages were maintained even after the allegations of Figliomeni’s alleged criminality were made public following his arrest.
Figliomeni Associate Also Bought Up Properties
Figliomeni’s close associate, Vito Sili, has also spent millions on property in recent years.
Under Canada’s anti-money laundering legislation, real estate companies are obligated to run background checks on their clients and report any suspicious transactions, including when they had reason to suspect investments might be proceeds of illicit activity.
According to experts, weak enforcement of such legislation in the real estate sector is just one of several factors that has made Toronto’s property market a magnet for dirty money in recent years. The opportunity to hide behind anonymous ownership structures is another.
“If you've got $1 million cash, you don’t have a lot of options. [Real estate is] a place where you can live, [and] you can easily hide ownership through beneficial owners,” said Stephen Schneider, a criminology professor at St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia and author of Iced: The Story of Organized Crime in Canada.
“You can co-mingle the proceeds of crime as a rental revenue," he added. “It's multipurpose for both making money and hiding money.”
The effects of mixing illegal money into the market are also pernicious for ordinary buyers. Money launderers often have incentives to overpay or overstate property values, which can raise costs for those already struggling to find affordable housing in cities like Toronto.
“A low-income couple or dual-income family is unable to rent in Toronto,” said Sasha Caldera of Publish What You Pay, which advocates for corporate transparency. “So it's extremely dangerous for any economy to be hosting, or acting as a conduit, for this kind of money.”
One of the properties "restrained" by Canadian authorities, then returned after the collapse of the Project Sindacato investigation in 2021
‘Both Deals $30 Million’
Angelo Figliomeni moved to Canada in the early 2000s from Calabria, in Italy’s far south, where the ’Ndrangheta grew from a kidnapping gang into a major global criminal organization involved in drug trafficking, extortion and murder.
He had been convicted on weapons charges at home, and still faces charges in Italy, where court documents show he was wanted for “mafia association.” In the Greater Toronto Area, police have alleged that he and his associates have engaged in illegal gambling, loan sharking and instigating gang violence.
OCCRP and the Star reported in April that a Canadian police investigation alleged the group was using insiders at major Canadian banks to launder criminal money, although charges were never proven in court.
The developer Figliomeni was strategizing with on the July 2019 call was identified in police files only as “Danny LNU.” Reporters traced the phone number listed in the files to Danny Di Meo, owner of the prominent Vaughan real estate developer Caliber Homes, which describes its housing projects as places where “luxury meets convenience.”
During the call with Figliomeni, “Danny LNU” mentioned a company referred to as “Cal-Queen,” according to the police summary of the wiretap. Di Meo owns a company called Cal-Queen West Developments Inc., which has made zoning applications in the Toronto-area city of Brampton, public records show.
At one point in the call summarized by police, Figliomeni said that would-be buyers wanted to purchase land in Brampton, but might only buy a second plot in Richmond Hill at a later date. Referring to an unknown third party, the police synopsis quotes “Danny LNU” as telling Figliomeni: “You gotta make sure he buys Richmond Hill too … that was the deal, both deals $30 million, it was both.”
In an email, John Chapman, a lawyer representing Di Meo, emphasized that the synopsis of the conversation was not a full transcript, and said it was "not possible to determine the accuracy" of the synopsis that reporters obtained from court files. However, he said it related to "an ordinary course conversation on a real estate transaction between 4 and 6 years ago."
A group of investors had paid a deposit to purchase some real estate but had breached the agreement, Chapman said. Di Meo knew Figliomeni was an acquaintance of one of the investors, and "the discussion related to the vendor exercising its legal right to forfeit that deposit.”
The court files obtained by reporters show that Caliber Homes’ office was searched by police during the Sindacato investigation, although neither Di Meo nor any of his employees were charged.
In a statement provided by his lawyer, Di Meo said Caliber Homes had “rigorous compliance measures in place to ensure that all our operations adhere to ethical business practices.”
“In July 2019, the Caliber Homes’ corporate office was one of dozens of business locations in the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] that was searched as part of a broad, inter-agency investigation,” Di Meo said. “Neither Caliber Homes nor any of our employees were targets of this investigation and Caliber Homes cooperated fully in ensuring authorities received all records that were sought.”
A person close to the case said DiMeo was questioned on why a numbered company owned by Figliomeni and his close associate, Vito Sili, allegedly sent CA$460,000 (US$349,000) to Cal-Queen West Developments Inc. in October 2016. (Sili did not respond to a request for comment.) Separately, a numbered company owned by Figliomeni allegedly paid CA$230,000 (US$216,000) to Cal-Wood Developments Inc. in late 2013, and another CA$100,000 (US$91,000) in April 2014.
OCCRP and the Toronto Star confirmed that the numbered companies referred to by the person close to the case each list Figliomeni as a director. Reporters have not been able to independently verify that the transfers occurred. The issue of whether cash transfers were made by Figliomeni or companies owned by him to Di Meo firms was not part of the criminal allegations against Figilomeni and has not been proven in court.
Property records show that Figliomeni and two others arrested as part of Project Sindacato — Sili and a former Royal Bank of Canada employee, Nicola Martino — bought and sold homes developed by Cal-Wood, each making a profit on their initial investment.
Martino declined to comment via his lawyer, who used the same wording in her response as Figliomeni’s lawyer had earlier this year: “My client is neither participating nor commenting on your inquiries. You should draw nothing from his decision in that regard.”
A Heated Meeting
Aside from buying homes, police wiretaps show Figliomeni intervening in a dispute between two Toronto-area real estate developers.
One October 2018 call records a conversation between Figliomeni and Joseph Sgro, a developer in Vaughan. Sgro is a business partner of Vic De Zen, the Canadian plastics industry mogul behind the Zzen group of companies, which also works in real estate development.
Transcripts show Figliomeni and Sgro discussing issues involving one particular development. Outlining to Figliomeni how he had met with a man named “Tony,” Sgro tells Figliomeni that “the meeting got heated.” Figliomeni signs off with: “Say hi to Vic.”
Sgro said in an emailed response that Figliomeni had called him about a dispute that Zzen Group and De Zen were having with Tony DeCicco, a Vaughan developer. They had neighboring properties fronting Highway 27 in Vaughan, and they disagreed over the path of access to the thoroughfare, Sgro said.
Sgro said he did not know Figliomeni well. He added that he had no idea what kind of relationship Figliomeni had with DeCicco, or why Figliomeni would intervene on De Cicco’s behalf.
“Mr. Figliomeni basically signaled a willingness for the adjacent owner (De Cicco) to resolve the issue with us,” Sgro wrote to reporters, saying Figliomeni “asked nothing from us and was paid nothing by us for his intervention.”
“Mr. De Zen and I have no idea whether Mr. Figliomeni was paid anything for his intervention or precisely what his relationship is or was with the adjacent property owner,” Sgro added.
De Zen also said he had no connections with Figliomeni.
“I do not recall ever meeting Mr. Figliomeni, speaking to him on the phone, or being introduced to him,” De Zen said. “I do not have a personal or business relationship or familiarity with Mr. Figliomeni. Nor did I have such a relationship with him earlier.
DeCicco did not respond to a request for comment sent to him via a lawyer, including questions about Sgro’s account of the call.
‘I’m Going to Give More Money’
Two months prior to his intervention with Sgro, Figliomeni had been busy setting up deals with another property developer.
In August of 2018, police recorded a call between Figliomeni and a person described in the documents only as “UM,” or “unidentified male.” The phone number listed by police on calls between Figliomeni and UM matches that of Canvas Developments, a residential and commercial builder in the Toronto-area city of Vaughan. . Public records show the company has also partnered with Di Meo’s Caliber Homes on housing developments.
Reporters reached out to Canvas and asked about the contents of the call, the firm's relationship to Angelo Figliomeni and whether the firm believed that it may have been used as a vehicle for alleged money laundering, among other questions. In an email, Albert Vitullo, CEO of Canvas, said: "This is not true," but he did not answer follow-up questions about what exactly he meant.
On a call between Figliomeni and UM, the pair discuss what police described as the two men “closing a deal imminently.” In a summary of the call, police said UM indicated that he “needs more money” from Figliomeni to seal the deal, “or he will have to push it back.”
“I’m going to come and see you tomorrow, we deal with it,” Figliomeni replied.
“I don’t want to put pressure on you Angelo,” UM responded.
Figliomeni’s promise underscores the close attention he paid to his real estate deals.
“I’m going to give more money,” says Figliomeni. “You tell me what you need. I’ll see if I can come up with that.”
