Private jets, yachts and parties: Ontario landlords flaunted lavish lifestyle as business began to crumble

As his real estate empire showed signs of trouble, a robed Robby Clark appeared in a promotional video, standing at the bow of a yacht, arms raised to the sky as a camera circled overhead. 

"You can stick me in the desert with nothing and I'm going to come out owning the desert," Clark is heard saying at another point in the three-minute video.

It was posted to several Instagram accounts like "billonaireclassy" in March 2022 and shows the former YTV child actor- turned-real estate investor living a life of luxury.  

He's shown getting into sports cars and relaxing in private jets, smiling next to famous rappers like Kanye West and Rick Ross, and taking in the view from a California mansion. 

Maps of Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury appear — they're among the Ontario communities where he owned an estimated 800 properties and thousands of tenants lived. 

"I'm going to have a billion dollars in holdings," Clark says. 

Clark's business partners from the Hamilton area — Dylan Suitor, Ryan Molony and Aruba Butt — also make appearances.

In the video, Molony and Suitor dance with Clark in nightclubs, and Suitor and Clark take selfies on the sidelines of an NFL game. Butt and Clark stand side by side on the yacht, wearing designer robes and raising their matching tumblers to the camera. 

"Ultimately if you're going to work with lenders, and we work with a lot of private lenders on acquisitions, they gotta know you know what you're doing," Clark says in the video. 

But behind the scenes, Clark's business, SID Developments, and 11 connected corporations owned by Molony, Suitor and Butt had taken on millions of dollars in debt and were struggling to keep up with payments to lenders, according to documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. 

Meanwhile, rundown properties sat vacant, and utility bills, property taxes and contractors went unpaid.

By early 2024, the corporations had only $100,000 in the bank and owed $144 million to lenders, faced dozens of lawsuits from creditors and received court-ordered bankruptcy protection.

Since CBC Hamilton reported on the court proceedings last week, Clark, Suitor, Molony and Butt have made many of their social media accounts private, and have not responded to requests for comment. 

But court documents and interviews with experts help explain how they became one of the largest holders of residential real estate in Ontario, and now are on the verge of losing it all.