The Real Estate Agent Charged with Arson

The Real Estate Mogul Who Burned Down His Rival’s Offices

Christophe Folla ran one of Quebec’s biggest brokerages. A grudge fuelled a seven-year campaign of revenge

From writer Caitlin Walsh Miller:

One revenge arson, I could almost understand—a disproportionate and reckless reaction, explained away as a moment of rage. But eight, over the better part of a decade? What could possibly fuel that kind of obsessive, incandescent fury?

That’s the question that first drew me to the story of Christophe Folla, the founder of Sutton Québec, a real estate agency, who took to torching his competition’s offices over a perceived business slight.

But the more I reported, the more I realized the fires weren’t the real story. The real story was a lifetime of ego and power and control and what happens when someone becomes determined to bend reality—and the wills of others—to fit the narrative they need the world to believe.

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Stories like this don’t surface on their own

Quebec journalists spent years digging into one of the strangest corporate crime stories in the country: a real estate mogul ordering arson attacks on his own competitors. Outside the province, it barely registered beyond a few wire stories.

A story this remarkable deserved a national audience. So Caitlin went deep, through court documents, interviews, and months of patient work, to bring the whole saga to readers across Canada for the first time. That kind of investigation—along with the rigorous fact checking—takes months and many thousands of dollars. And it only happens when readers fund it.

When you support The Walrus, you make it possible for writers like Caitlin to go after stories the rest of the country would otherwise miss. There are more of them out there. Help us find the next one.

— Carmine Starnino

Editor-in-Chief, The Walrus

The Real Estate Mogul Who Burned Down His Rival’s Offices

Stories like this don’t surface on their own

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