Bank of Montreal alleges huge mortgage fraud
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 4, 2010 | 9:04 PM MT
By Charles Rusnell, CBC News
This house in the Bearspaw district of Calgary was bought for nearly $900,000 and in three years, its value was inflated to $2.3 million, a profit of $1.4 million for the alleged fraudsters.(CBC)The Bank of Montreal is suing hundreds of people in Alberta, including lawyers, mortgage brokers and four of its own employees, in what is one of the largest alleged cases of mortgage fraud in Canadian history.
Legal documents obtained exclusively by CBC News allege the bank was the target of a sophisticated fraud operated by 14 inter-connected groups. The documents allege the scheme generated at least $140 million, about $70 million of which was for phony mortgages.
The bank has estimated it may lose as much as $30 million.
Toronto forensic accountant Al Rosen said he has never seen anything like it.
"This is massive in the sense that it is so broad and so deep," Rosen said Tuesday. "This is [allegedly] a huge fraud. I can't think of any situation that has so many people involved and over a period of time like this one."
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