Vince Petrozza
3.7K posts
@vincepetrozza
Chief Operating Officer and Principal @FortressRDI, tweeting about Canadian Real Estate, Sports and more
I would like to address and reply to recent comments made by Ron Butler and reposted by others on X on April 25, 2026 at 1:30PM. I think it is important to note, there was a full judicial trial on the Fortress matter, and we were found guilty of fraud over $5000 while the Crown dropped another charge before the end of the trial because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction we were found innocent on 2 other charges. Additionally, we are appealing our conviction, so I will not comment on the charges we were found guilty of and are now challenging. Back to Ron’s comments: Ron states in his recent video about Fortress that “….they took the guys from Fortress Developments who stole hundreds of millions from old people, disabled people…. A complete tragedy I followed forever” This is categorically false – based on the evidence from the Trial I now present. We were charged with 3 things: 1. Taking secret commissions – this is the charge that was dropped because there was no reasonable prospect of conviction; 2. Fraud over $5,000 for allegedly not disclosing Fortress’ fees and participation – the Court found us not guilty on this basis, finding that Fortress did disclose its fees and participation; and 3. Fraud over $5,000 for using opinions of values, instead of appraisals As we have stated above, and I repeat again, before the end of the trial, the Crown withdrew the first charge, at the end of the trial, Justice Moore found us innocent on the second charge and guilty of the third charge. We are appealing that finding. We were never charged, nor ever convicted of theft of stealing from Fortress’ investors. As a matter of fact, the Crown admitted and the Court accepted that “Fortress’ business model was overall very successful” with many of “the investors/lenders being paid back their principal and interest in full as well as a bonus completion return,” that we “truly wanted [Fortress’ projects] to succeed,” and that the Colliers and Sky City projects, in particular, “were real construction projects that might have been able to provide the expected returns to the investors but for the bankruptcy of Mady.” Justice Moore actually commented that we went above and beyond our requirements when it came to the disclosure of our fees, as Justice Moore found “that there was no obligation to disclose the fees at all,” as “the fees were a matter between Fortress and the Borrower”. The frustrating part is all of this is in the publicly available Justice Moore’s decision and if Ron actually “followed forever” as he states, he would not have made the inaccurate assertions that he has in his video. I invite any reader to read the Justice Moore’s decision and learn the truth for yourself: canlii.org/en/on/oncj/doc… Once this appeal is completed, I plan on offering more on all things Fortress but until then, Thank you for choosing to read the facts and learn the truth for yourself. Sincerely, Vince Petrozza
