A court-appointed receiver is expected to ask for expanded powers to investigate Victoria mortgage broker Gregory Martel and his company My Mortgage Auction Corp. and demand again that Martel disclose documents.
In an application filed Tuesday, receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers asked the court to add six other related companies to the receivership that already encompasses Martel and three of his businesses — My Mortgage Auction doing business as Shop Your Own Mortgage, Shop Your Own Corp. and Martel Investments. The additional companies are 2289548 Alberta Ltd., Shair Your Car, Snail Team One, Snail Team Six, G&G Discount Merchandise and Martel Capital.
The application asks the court to assign My Mortgage Auction into bankruptcy, and to direct Google to provide exclusive administrative authority to the receiver for all My Mortgage Auction email and databases.
The application further asks the court to direct a number of companies including JP Morgan Chase, Coinbase, First National Bank Omaha and TD Ameritrade to provide information to the receiver.
In its third report to the courts, posted Tuesday, PricewaterhouseCoopers noted Martel has not cooperated with the receiver, refused to provide requested information and did not comply with a court order to provide a sworn affidavit of assets as required by May 12.
A letter from the lawyer representing Martel’s company, My Mortgage Auction, said Martel was not in a position to provide a complete list, but did provide a partial list. The letter adds that Martel is “presently out of the jursidiction, due to having received a number of death threats and threats of violence to his family.”
The report says Martel appears to have attempted last week to move business bank accounts and a personal account from Chase to Citibank, which would have been in breach of the court’s investigatory powers order.
The receiver’s report shows the receiver has so far compiled a list of 1,205 investors, 50 trade creditors and 11 former My Mortgage Auction employees.
Last week the receiver made public a list of unsecured creditors and said $228.6 million is owed, plus another $234,219 US. The list suggested the investors accounted for $226.4 million of what is owed.
The court acted when one of Martel’s investors, an Alberta company that claimed to have invested more than $17 million with him, said neither Martel nor his company has made payment for outstanding amounts due under investment agreements
The Alberta firm urged the court to appoint a receiver so Martel’s business assets could be protected, reviewed and assessed for the benefit of all stakeholders.
Since the first lawsuit was filed in April, several others have followed. Each lawsuit claims an individual or company invested money with Martel on the understanding the money would be used to provide short-term bridge loans for commercial and residential real estate deals.
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