Mortgage lender misled investors, BCSC hearing finds
A panel of the British Columbia Securities Commission has concluded that a Salmon Arm man and his company made misrepresentations and false or misleading statements to investors.
The findings affirm allegations the commission's executive director made in January 2020 about Donald Bergman and his company All Canadian Investment Corporation.
Bergman will now face sanctions from the BCSC, which will be determined after submissions from the executive director and Bergman himself this fall.
According to the panel's decision, Bergman was the sole director of All Canadian Investment Corporation, a mortgage lender that provided loans to owners and developers of residential and commercial real estate.
The misrepresentations and false or misleading statements Bergman made came in three "offering memorandums" that explained to investors how the loans would be secured.
ACIC raised $1.6 million from 56 investors through the memorandums between January 2014 and December 2015, according to the BCSC.
"The offering memorandums said the mortgages would be registered in the appropriate land title office, and were the first or second mortgage on the property; however, ACIC did not register some of the mortgages and cancelled some of the registrations," the BCSC said in a news release.
"In addition, some of its mortgage loans were secured by mortgages that ranked lower in priority than represented in the documents."
According to the panel's decision, Bergman defended himself against the commission's allegations of misrepresentations by focusing on what he described as the intent of the memorandums.
He argued that the memorandums said only that the properties would be registered, but not for how long, and told the hearing panel that in some cases it would be advantageous to deregister a mortgage in the interest of taking a flexible approach with the borrower, according to the decision.
The decision describes Bergman's arguments as "without merit."
"Although Bergman’s belief was that investors were to some extent relying on his judgment in which mortgage registrations to cancel instead of relying on the registrations themselves to protect investment returns, an investment made on such a basis would be a fundamentally different type of investment from one offered in the (offering memorandums)," the panel wrote in its decision.
"Bergman’s reading of the OMs and his interpretation of the expectations of investors reflects his own subjective beliefs and not a fair, objective reading of the relevant clause."
According to the BCSC's release, dividends paid to investors in Bergman's company began dwindling in 2015. In 2017, the Supreme Court of B.C. appointed a monitor to help ACIC liquidate its assets, and losses for preferred shareholders are estimated to be between 81.9 per cent and 96.1 per cent.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Legendary hockey broadcaster Bob Cole dies at 90: CBC
Bob Cole, a welcome voice for Canadian hockey fans for a half-century, has died at the age of 90. Cole died Wednesday night in St. John's, N.L., surrounded by his family, his daughter, Megan Cole, told the CBC.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
2 teens charged in Halifax homicide: police
Two teenagers have been charged with second-degree murder in connection to an alleged homicide near the Halifax Shopping Centre earlier this week.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
12-year-old hippo in Japan raised as a male discovered to be a female
When Gen-chan arrived at a zoo in Japan in 2017, no one questioned whether the then-five-year-old hippopotamus was a boy. Seven years later, zoo staff made a surprising discovery: Gen-chan, now 12, was female.
Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
'Deep ignorance': Calls for Manitoba trustee to resign sparked after comments about Indigenous people and reconciliation
A rural Manitoba school trustee is facing calls to resign over comments he made about Indigenous people and residential schools earlier this week.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.