Greg Martel was a mortgage broker who coached his kid’s hockey team and pledged money to charity. By the time he owed investors $317 million, he was nowhere to be found.
It was September 2023. Five months earlier, Martel, 47, had denied running a Ponzi scheme — one that was eventually called the biggest in B.C. history — and then fled.Now, Martel’s assets had been frozen, and he’d been ordered into receivership and bankruptcy. A civil warrant for his arrest had already been issued in Canada, and would soon be issued in the U.S.
As those business endeavours grew, so did Martel’s reputation. In 2010, he was named one of the top 50 mortgage brokers in Canada, according to Canadian Mortgage Professional.Harbour View Mortgages at one time had an office in this building on Yates Street in Victoria. The newly named company compiled lending rates of financial institutions in one place, making it convenient for consumers to find the cheapest available mortgage.
They investigated but found “no breach of requirements under the Mortgage Brokers Act,” the Province reported. Around the same time, Martel rebranded Zilla Mortgage as My Mortgage Auction Corp. , which did business as Shop Your Own Mortgage . Investors logged onto a personalized “portal,” and saw what they believed were investments that appeared to be maturing. They also saw whatever new “opportunities” Martel was offering.
In hindsight, Julien identified one possible red flag. She was told investors were supposed to have a net worth of at least $1 million.Around mid-2017, Martel moved to Nevada, where SYOM was licensed to broker with banks. Believing they would be more successful brokering loans rather than compiling various lenders’ rates in one place, Delafuente said they moved in January 2019 to Irvine, Calif., where some of their non-bank lenders were based.
With Delafuente’s help, he leased another half-dozen vehicles, including a Porsche 911 and two Mercedes G-Wagons, and was soon profiting $20,000 to $30,000 US a month, according to Delafuente. VI. Burning through money Martel’s fleet of 32 vehicles was stored and rented from three locations, including company headquarters, a former car dealership in West Costa Mesa. Among his personal favourites was a 2021 Rolls Royce Cullinan, worth around $400,000 Cdn, which Martel saved for himself, according to a former employee.Most days, Martel and Delafuente would get up early and work out at the office gym with other executives, according to former employees.
Martel also seemed to gamble on his abilities as an entrepreneur, launching new ideas before old ones had taken off. Some contemplated taking legal action against their former employer, according to employees and court documents. Two employees said they were fired for speaking out against a toxic workplace that included micromanaging by Martel’s chief operating officer.
In early 2023, Delafuente, Martel and another partner agreed to buy 50 per cent of Royalty Exotic Cars, a Las Vegas car rental company owned by Houston Crosta, according to Crosta. According to PwC documents, Martel owed a significant amount to an MMAC investor in Alberta named Robert Bertram. “He was just like, ‘What? What are you talking about?... Everything’s going great,’” Delafuente said.
“Many people want to say things about our company.… It’s not true at all,” he said. “And a good proof of that is that we have a massive waitlist.” After attempting to reassure investors, the author of the post accused Delafuente of “stealing from Greg and his companies.” In one email, he blamed his lack of co-operation on PwC, saying his company was “under a massive breach of company data,” which he claimed to have reported to the police, “who have escalated it to the FBI.”
According to PwC documents, one of Martel’s investors, a California resident named Daniel Castellini, hired an unnamed private investigator. In his interview with CBC, Green said he located Martel in Thailand after about two months and eventually found him using a different passport. Dubai has no extradition treaty with Canada or the U.S. From an undisclosed location, Green told CBC he would get Martel on another phone and allow this reporter to listen. The speaker sounded tired and began talking about a plan they and Green had the following day at 7 p.m. “Let me call you about this in an hour,” Green said.
A year after Martel’s disappearance, financial investigators for PwC concluded that Martel’s lending business was a Ponzi. No bridge loans existed. Martel had nine bank accounts, according to PwC, including a Coinbase account, that had a combined balance of $2,661.35. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for PwC described the receivership proceedings as “ongoing,” and said it does not comment on issues relating to “active receivership proceedings.”
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Solana, a ‘typical ponzi scheme’? Uncovering the allegationsSolana's network faces scrutiny as vote transactions dominate 85% of activity, raising concerns over fairness and validator dominance.
Read more »
How Aave faces $300M liquidation amid Ethereum’s dropAave experienced a record-high spike in liquidations, with $300 million liquidated amidst a significant drop in Ethereum prices.
Read more »
All you need to know about 300M-strong Hamster Kombat’s new whitepaperPopular Telegram-based game, Hamster Kombat, recently achieved a significant milestone, surpassing 300 million users just five...
Read more »
Expect 'massive' Q2 earnings for AI chip stocks: Dan IvesWedbush is out with a bullish call on Palantir (PLTR), raising its price target to $50 for 2025 amid a heated AI race. Wedbush senior equity analyst Dan Ives...
Read more »
Ontario townhouse sold at massive loss a troubling window into current marketA well-supplied GTA real estate market throughout the spring and early summer meant that many prospective buyers had more negotiating power on pric...
Read more »
Massive tech outage causing worldwide disruptions, here’s what we knowCrowdStrike says fix is on the way, as chaos deepens in hours after problem first detected
Read more »