Disbarred Brampton lawyer charged in $4.3M mortgage fraud
· Toronto Sun
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Police in Peel Region have arrested a former Brampton lawyer, disbarred last year due to his participation in a 2019 mortgage fraud, who they allege is responsible for bilking more people out of their money.
Over the summer, investigators with the Peel Regional Police Fraud Bureau began looking into complaints that the accused, 52-year-old Pawanjeet Singh Mann, was again engaged in fraudulent activity.
Initiated in August, the investigation accuses Mann of orchestrating four separate mortgage and cheque fraud schemes, which resulted in a total loss of $4.3 million to his alleged victims.
Mann, who was called to the bar in 2017, was arrested on Friday, Aug. 21 and charged with four counts of fraud over $5,000, four counts of possessing property obtained by crime, three counts of criminal breach of trust, and a pair of counts of uttering forged documents.
“Profound breach of trust”
In a statement, Peel Deputy Chief Nick Milinovich said the allegations represent a “profound breach of trust” by an individual entrusted with significant financial responsibility.
“ When that trust is exploited for personal gain, the impact on victims extends far beyond financial loss — it affects their daily lives, their sense of security, and their confidence in the systems meant to protect them,” he said.
“Peel Regional Police will relentlessly pursue those who prey on members of our community. No profession, title, or status places anyone above the law.”
Mann, who was the proprietor of PJ Mann Law Professional Corporation, had his law licence revoked by the Law Society Tribunal of Ontario last July after he was found to have knowingly participated in a late 2019 mortgage fraud scheme.
Disbarment was due to mortgage fraud
As written in the tribunal’s decision , the case was centred on a client who already owned an investment property in Woodstock, Ont. and was looking to buy a second piece of land in Dundalk.
Regulators found Mann and a second individual ignored obvious red flags and used shared office trust accounts to facilitate the dodgy real estate deals — primarily by securing a first mortgage from an institutional lender for the purchase of the new property by claiming the first property had been sold, despite knowing that their client hadn’t sold the land.
According to information publicly released by the tribunal , Mann “knowingly assisted fraud or dishonesty when acting on real estate transactions involving two properties.”
As well, the tribunal found that Mann made intentional attempts to mislead the Law Society during their investigation.
In addition to his immediate disbarment, Mann was also ordered to pay $24,000 to the Law Society