Mortgage broker submitted ‘falsified’ income documents with 8 applications to lenders, BCFSA says

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A B.C. mortgage broker has agreed to pay $80,000 to a provincial regulator and have his registration cancelled after admitting he supplied falsified income documents to lenders in eight mortgage applications.

Amandeep Duggal entered a consent order agreement with the B.C. Financial Services Authority in May, and a redacted version of the document was published on the regulator’s website late last month.

In the agreement, Duggal admitted to conducting business “in a manner prejudicial to the public interest,” both by submitting the false information and by failing to use “reasonable due diligence” when verifying the accuracy of borrowers’ income information.

According to the document, the BCFSA began investigating Duggal in response to three separate complaints it received between November 2022 and April 2023.

“The complaints alleged that he offered to create falsified documentation for clients who would otherwise not qualify for mortgage financing and that he collected upfront fees in relation to their mortgage applications,” the consent order reads.

In September 2023, investigators visited Duggal’s office and served him a summons for records related to the complaints.

“The review did not uncover any documents related to the complaints and BCFSA did not pursue those complaints further,” the document reads.

Because of the nature of the complaints, however, the regulator conducted a further review of Duggal’s practice. Investigators received copies of all 98 mortgage applications he had submitted between Sept. 2, 2022 and Sept. 22, 2023, and the BCFSA reviewed eight of them.

All eight included “falsified income supporting documents,” according to the consent order.

Some of the applications included fake tax returns, T4s and notices of assessment. Others included falsified bank statements and invoices.

In four of the eight cases, the consent order indicates Duggal submitted the falsified documents despite the prospective borrowers sending accurate income documentation to email addresses associated with his brokerage.

“A. Duggal told BCFSA that he did not personally review emails sent to all brokerage email addresses,” the consent order reads.

“A. Duggal submitted the inflated income information without taking any steps to verify the accuracy of the income information.”

According to the document, Duggal received more than $56,000 in commissions in connection to the eight files.

“A. Duggal admits that he ought to have known that the income information he submitted to lenders was inflated from the actual income,” the document reads.

Under the consent order, Duggal agreed to have his registration under the provincial Mortgage Brokers Act cancelled and to pay a $50,000 administrative penalty to the BCFSA within six months.

He also agreed to pay the regulator $30,000 in “investigation costs” within 30 days.