Champlain Towers South was built in 1981 by a consortium of Canadian developers. At the forefront of the group was Nathan Reiber. But paperwork shows at least five others were prominently involved.

Mr. Reiber came to Canada from Poland as a child with his parents during the Great Depression. He grew up in Edmonton, and graduated with a law degree from the University of Alberta in 1951.

For almost his entire legal career he had a foot in the development world. In 1960, he was described in the Canadian Jewish News as a “lawyer with interests in building.”

In addition to his law practice with Newman & Reiber, Mr. Reiber had side ventures for his real estate deals, including Newrey Holdings, Reiber Estates, Jeff-Mar Holdings, Bath-Shep Apartments and Reiwen Holdings. Florida business records show Mr. Reiber served as a director on dozens of other companies in that state.

His career was pocked with lawsuits and allegations of fraud, and in the late 1970s, he relocated to Florida, shortly afterthe Canadian government charged him with tax evasion. He resigned his law licence to avoid being disbarred. As he quietly resolved his legal issues, Mr. Reiber became a fixture of local Miami-area society and was known as a philanthropist.

He died in 2014.

Keep reading on The Globe and Mail