U.S. issues detention order for alleged B.C. Ponzi schemer Greg Martel

Karin Larsen · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 03, 2023 7:53 PM EDT | Last Updated: October 4

A bankruptcy judge in California has issued a detention order calling for alleged Ponzi artist Greg Martel to be taken immediately into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service, assuming he can be located in the country.

At the same time, new details have come to light about a run-in Martel had with a private investigator and authorities in Thailand in August.

Martel is the disgraced Victoria mortgage broker who owes $226 million to approximately 1,200 investors after the collapse of a financial scheme that promised clients incredible rates of return — as high as 100 per cent on an annualized basis, in some cases.

Court-appointed receiver PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been charged with finding where the money went and recovering any assets for the benefit of jilted investors. Martel’s whereabouts remain uncertain.

According to new documents filed in the U.S., Martel continues to flout court orders, most recently through interactions with a California investor named Daniel Castellini, to whom he owes $2 million.

Castellini is alleged to have hired a private investigator, who found Martel in Thailand and then arranged for Thai authorities to detain him on an expired tourist visa, according to a declaration from Neil Bunker, PwC senior vice president.

Martel ordered to leave Thailand

Bunker goes on to say that Castellini and Martel then “cut a deal” that saw Martel transfer a Las Vegas mansion, two Teslas and a “substantial” amount of cash to Castellini, breaching court orders prohibiting him from disposing of assets. 

The deed for the Las Vegas property was allegedly notarized “by audio-visual communication,” on Aug. 29, 2023. Bunker said Martel was released from Thai custody the next day and ordered to leave the country, which he did.

Bunker’s declaration goes on to state that Castellini then contacted a Canadian investor who is paying for PwC’s asset recovery efforts in the U.S. The purpose of the conversation was to advise the Canadian that the Las Vegas property was no longer in play because it had already been transferred to him. 

So far, only $300,000 of the missing $226 million has been recovered. Martel has not been charged criminally in either country, but is under criminal investigation by the B.C. Securities Commission.

Martel and his company Shop Your Own Mortgage (SYOM) were put into receivership on May 4, an action that pulled together more than a dozen lawsuits that had been filed by individual investors claiming they were owed money.

SYOM was supposedly in the business of pooling investor money to provide short-term bridge loans to real estate developers, but so far investigators have found no evidence that any loans were ever made. 

“The absence of records here points to the concept that [SYOM] was a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Martel,” said Bunker in the declaration.

Martel has not cooperated with PwC in the receivership process, despite numerous court orders compelling him to.

A hearing has been scheduled in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in California on Oct. 24 for PwC’s application to have the Canadian court proceedings recognized south of the border. 

The detention ordered issued on Sept. 29 says U.S. authorities agree to recognize and enforce a contempt order issued in B.C. Supreme Court last month that seeks Martel’s arrest in Canada.