Kamloops mortgage broker admits to misappropriating millions of dollars from lender

Earlier this year, Stewart finally provided Kam-MIC a portfolio list containing 39 mortgage loans. The lender alleges the majority of those mortgages were bogus. It says about half of them were once registered to the lender but have since been discharged, even though they were still listed as current in Stewart’s portfolio.

Kam-MIC says it has not received a mortgage payout since August, 2023. It believes many of the mortgages were repaid and discharged, but Stewart did not actually remit the money to Kam-MIC.

The lender also says there is a $3-million shortfall in the interest revenue Kam-MIC actually received compared to the interest those loans should have generated.

In addition, Kam-MIC accuses Stewart of maxing out the lender’s $2-million line of credit at TD Bank, then forging a signature on a document meant to keep that line of credit in operation. The claim says TD informed Kam-MIC of the maxed-out line of credit in August.

The multiple legal violations alleged in the claim have not been proven in court and there is no record Stewart has been charged criminally.

In a formal response to the suit filed on October 14, Stewart admits to “misappropriation, essentially as alleged by the plaintiff” and acknowledges the “losses exceed [Stewart’s] realistic ability to pay.”

One allegation Stewart disputes is the actual magnitude of the misappropriation. He says he does not know the exact amounts, though he concedes the amounts alleged “are probably correct or close to correct.”

How Kam-MIC might recover its missing funds is unclear, as Stewart’s response notes “the amount of a judgment in this case is likely to far exceed the recoverable assets available to pay such judgment.”

The two parties are due back in a Kelowna courtroom in November.

by James Peters

Kamloops mortgage broker admits to misappropriating millions of dollars from lender

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