Former B.C. mortgage broker Gregory Martel – who authorities say ran a Ponzi scheme that raised hundreds of millions of dollars from unsuspecting investors, then fled Canada as the scheme began to unravel – has had his licence to practise in the province permanently cancelled.
The B.C. Financial Services Authority ordered the cancellation earlier this month, making permanent the suspension it first issued against Martel and his company My Mortgage Auction Corp. as an emergency action in May 2023.
My Mortgage Auction Corp., which operated as “Shop Your Own Mortgage,” has also had its licence permanently cancelled.
In a decision issued March 13 and published on the BCFSA website this week, hearing officer Andrew Pendray noted that neither Martel nor his company participated in the hearing on the matter.
This is consistent with Martel’s response to other legal matters in recent years, according to Pendray, whose decision notes that Martel was found in contempt of court in September 2023, but has not been located by police, nor participated in ongoing civil cases against him, since then.
“I consider the evidence to show that Mr. Martel, and as a result SYOM, have intentionally made themselves unavailable for the hearing of this matter,” Pendray’s decision reads. “In my view, the respondents have been provided with ample opportunity to be heard in this matter, and have simply elected to not participate in it.”
Martel and his company were ordered into bankruptcy in 2023, and PwC was appointed as the trustee for both the corporate and the personal bankruptcy.
In a report to the B.C. Supreme Court opposing Martel’s discharge from bankruptcy proceedings last year, PwC said it had found evidence of “numerous offences” and concluded that SYOM was operating as a “massive Ponzi scheme.”
It also said Martel left Canada sometime before his company was placed in receivership. He was living in Thailand until August 2023, when he was deported and travelled to the United Arab Emirates, according to PwC.
- Read more: B.C. mortgage broker ran $270-million Ponzi scheme, then fled Canada, bankruptcy trustee says
The trustee’s findings formed part of Pendray’s reasons for cancelling the licences, according to his decision.
“SYOM’s general ledger showed that shareholder funds advanced to Mr. Martel had been used to fund a variety of personal expenses, including private jets, luxury apartment rentals, vehicle purchases, and home escrow payments,” Pendray’s decision reads, summarizing one of PwC’s reports to the court.
“Simply put, the evidence and information before me suggests that Mr. Martel and SYOM cannot be trusted to assist their clients in making sound financial decisions, or to handle funds in an honest way as may be required of a submortgage or mortgage broker,” reads a later section of the decision.
According to a news release from the BCFSA announcing the licence cancellations, the regulator concluded its investigation in September 2024. Separate investigations have been launched by the B.C. Securities Commission – which regulates provincial investment markets – and the Victoria Police Department.
