Stinson puts businesses in bankruptcy

Harry Stinson, the Toronto real- estate developer who was in competition with Donald Trump to build the city’s highest residential building, placed four of his businesses in bankruptcy and, according to the receiver running the operations, violated a court order by doing so.

“It’s going to create more chaos,” Joseph Latham, lawyer for the receiver, Ira Smith Trustee & Receiver Inc., told Ontario Superior Judge Sarah Pepall at a hearing in Toronto. He urged the judge to annul the bankruptcies.

Stinson operated The Suites at 1 King West, a luxury condominium-hotel, through his company Stinson Hospitality Inc., one of the four companies placed in bankruptcy. He had also proposed to build twin towers, the highest at 81 stories, surpassing a 70-story condominium Trump had planned a block away.

Trump’s tower proposal has been scaled down to 57 stories, while Stinson’s Sapphire Tower has been shelved, with Sapphire Tower Development Corp. having been placed in bankruptcy protection July 20.

Latham also asked the judge to order Stinson to return financial statements and computer drives taken from 1 King West. He said Stinson removed two computers Aug. 24 and a box of documents on Labor Day, material that should have stayed in the possession of the receiver.

The receiver is reviewing security tapes to see if Stinson was caught on camera removing the material, Latham said.