I paid for research and development. I have the results of that in-hand. Your options are to take that and make something of it, or hire a lawyer for more money then you are out to try and recover a percentage of what you're out.

Should the embezzler be brought to the justice, yes. If canadian law permits confiscating the house, that will happen. It's quite possible that it doesn't. Selling the house is outside of Ryland's ability because he don't own it, until a court says otherwise Dave does. Any resolution on the money is going to take years, in the best case. The reality is, at my hourly rate, I've wasted more here in my time then I have invested in the project. I'm going to try to make something good out of the R&D. If you want to waste your time and money going after someone who doesn't control the house you want sold and doesn't have any money to give you, I guess that's your call.