Mortgage Fraud In Canada 

If you have read anything about Canadian Mortgage Fraud, you will know  that Mortgage and Real Estate Fraud is booming in Canada and more and more Mortgage Brokers, Real Estate Lawyers, Real Estate Agents and Brokers and even some Mortgage Lenders are acting unscrupulously - some bordering on fraud. This from those whom you have entrusted with your identity and your personal financial information.

The fact is, the Canadian Mortgage industry is filled with greed and larceny, especially at the Mortgage Broker level.

MortageCop.ca has been created for the sole purpose of bringing attention to, and exposing, dishonesty, corruption, fraud, forgery and all other unethical and illegal activity - white collar crime within the Canadian Mortgage industry.

What Can You Do?

TORONTO, Ontario, November 07, 2007 — The vast majority of Canadians (81 per cent) are happy with the terms of their mortgages thanks in large measure to "good interest rates" and longer amortization options, according to a report released today by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals (CAAMP). Significantly, thirty seven per cent of Canadians who have taken out a mortgage in the last year have chosen amortization periods of more than 25 years. The information was gathered by Maritz from an online survey of 2,000 Canadians in late September and analyzed in conjunction with CAAMP economist, Will Dunning.

AP
Weak Dollar Helps Canadians Buy US Homes
Friday December 14, 1:37 pm ET
By Chris Kahn, AP Business Writer

CHANDLER, Ariz. (AP) -- Two hours after his flight landed in Phoenix, Calgary resident Doug Farley already was cruising the city's vast stuccoed suburbs in search of the one attraction Canadians can't seem to get enough of these days, cheap homes.

Canada isn’t having much luck cleaning up its image as A country that is soft on white-collar crime. While Conrad Black faces up to 35 years in prison after his recent conviction in a Chicago courtroom, Canadian authorities are still licking their wounds after the recent acquittal of former Bre-X chief geologist John Felderhof on civil charges of insider trading.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Four years ago, the RCMP launched its Integrated Market Enforcement Teams, or IMETs, elite squads of investigators who were supposed to work together to crack down on white-collar crime. The results have been disappointing, to say the least. While the U.S. Justice Department has racked up more than 1,200 convictions against high-level executives and scammers in the past five years, the IMETs have managed just two — against the same person.

Canadian Business senior writer John Gray talked with Craig Hannaford and Bill Majcher — two IMET officers who recently left the force — about the problems cops face in getting their man, and what can be done about them. Both have spent their careers trying to protect investors from fraudsters. Hannaford, now a private consultant in Toronto, oversaw the investigation into the collapse of Livent Inc. Majcher is best known for his work in the Bermuda Short sting, a joint RCMP-FBI undercover operation that nabbed corrupt Canadian lawyers Martin Chambers and Simon Rosenfeld in 2002. Majcher is now managing director at the Baron Group, a Hong Kong–based investment bank.

 

     TARAWALTON/TORONTO STAR

What happened?

Michael Henry

Toronto Star 

Paul Reviczky, 90, who immigrated to Canada 50 years ago with his wife, Ilona, and then 3-year-old daughter Marietta, purchased a house at 220 Sheppard Ave. W. in 1980 for $67,500 to generate rental income to send to family back home in Hungary.On June 26, 2005, just months after his wife died, Reviczky was outside the home where he lives alone – close to the Sheppard property – talking to a neighbour who is a real estate agent. Vivian Ho told him she noticed he had sold his rental property in May and later showed him a computer record of the sale.Reviczky believes the Sheppard tenants – who had rented the property in March and identified themselves as Kristina and Adam Skurik – forged his name on a power-of-attorney document, which purported to give a "grandson" named "Aaron Paul Reviczky" the authority to sell the home on his behalf.

Dream Laws and Politics for Hungry Bankers:
An analytical reconstruction of Bank of Montreal, Allied Canadian, Cheney, Glenn and Graydon evidence used in an ICAO accountant investigation file 542401 about ‘Sitting Duck’ loans.

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Five Toronto-area residents face more than 100 fraud-related charges in an alleged real estate scam that sold parking spaces as condos to innocent investors, police say.

Bankers, developers, a lawyer and real estate agents allegedly worked together to defraud TD Bank of $3.8 million in bogus mortgage loans.

"I have never seen such a tight-knit and closed circuit," Det. Craig Ellis said. "The owners, the agents, the bank employees, the lawyers ... everybody that had anything to do with it: It was all baloney."

The alleged scheme ran from 1998 to 2000. Police claim two brothers, Kam Cheung Chan and Patrick Chan, enticed their victims to invest in two condominiums.

Police said the Chan brothers had victims fill out a mortgage application but didn't ask for any money up front, waiving the down payment.

Bank employees who were allegedly in on the scam made sure the mortgage loans sailed through. Then the suspects kept the cash.

The thieves were apparently selling parking and storage spaces, not condos, for about $300,000 each.

Unsuspecting investors were promised a cut of profits when the properties sold. But they never got a penny. "Sometimes they were recruited off the street or at investment seminars," Ellis said. "You have to realize these people were ... unsophisticated (about) real estate transactions."

Five suspects face 135 charges. Canada-wide warrants have been issued for two more suspects.

The TD Bank at Weston Rd. and Finch Ave. provided the funds for the mortgages. Bank officials blew the whistle on the case when problems arose with the accounts.

"The Chans were respected builders in the community," Ellis said. "They dealt with the bank, and as such they were in contact with bank employees."

Kelly Heckler, spokesperson for Toronto Dominion, said the bank has re-evaluated its security measures. "We have long since tightened our procedures. We reviewed what happened and how it happened. But for security reasons I am not going to get into details."

Heckler wouldn't say whether the stolen funds were recovered.

Patrick Chan, 61, of Richmond Hill; Lascelles Williams, 36, of Pickering; Saquib Majeed Baig, 38, of Markham; Steven Mucha, 53, of Toronto; and Roland Williams, 70, of Mississauga face fraud and other charges. They are scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 25.

Canadawide warrants have been issued for Ling Ling Cho, 45, of Markham, and Kam Cheung Chan, 54, of Mississauga, who are also wanted on charges of fraud.