Unlicenced B.C. mortgage broker on the hook for $50K

A B.C. mortgage broker who said he forgot to renew this licence is on the hook for almost $50,000 after the regulator caught up with him.

According to a Nov. 2 B.C. Financial Services Authority decision, Michael Randell Esler made more than $800,000 for facilitating 28 mortgages over a six-year span when he did not hold a licence.

Esler, who does business as Esler Resort Consulting and Off-Piste Capital, had been registered in B.C. from 2008 but let his licence expire in 2016.

"Mr. Esler states that he did not renew his or Esler Resort Consulting Ltd.’s registration in B.C. because the regulator did not remind him, so he had forgotten," the decision reads. "Mr. Esler acknowledges that it is his fault for overlooking the registration requirement."

Esler signed a consent agreement order and admitted he'd skipped three renewal periods.

The decision says Esler has been registered in Alberta for the last 20 years and his licence in that province is up to date.

The decision says Esler arranged commercial mortgages through his company, whose website stated that he was registered.

Esler argued that he was registered when he set the website up but had not maintained it since it was created in 2016.

READ MORE: B.C. mortgage broker banned for life

The decision says that Esler also had dealings arranging mortgages with an unregistered lender on 10 separate files.

The decision says Esler made $804,579 in fees from October 2016 to December 2021 when he was unlicensed. Each mortgage netted him roughly $25,000.

The regulator also found that Esler had failed to provide borrowers and lenders with a conflict of interest disclosure statement in one instance, and on 10 separate occasions hadn't given clients an investor and lender information statement.

The Financial Services Authority said Esler cooperated with the investigation and had no prior history with the regulator.

Ultimately, Esler was fined $40,000 and had to pay fees of $7,937.

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