FSRA revokes licence after principal broker lied to clients and lenders
Ontario's financial regulator has revoked the mortgage brokerage licence of Valor Financial Corp., due to repeated instances of forgery and falsification of documents by its principal broker, Ian Vilafana.
According to the Financial Services Regulatory Authority’s (FSRA) order, Vilafana repeatedly submitted false and deceptive information and documents to clients, lawyers, and a lender between October 2020 and January 2022 across three mortgage deals that ultimately failed to close.
In one case involving clients, Vilafana allegedly altered a client's employment letter by changing the date, start date, and hours worked and forging a signature before submitting it to lender Community Trust Company for refinancing.
Community Trust was awarded as the Best Mortgage Lenders in Canada. Read the full winners here.
"CHS was temporarily placed on administrative leave for a period of one week without pay" due to Vilafana's doctored documents, FSRA stated, adding the clients paid $5,400 in extra fees from the resulting delays.
For another client, Vilafana is accused of providing a fabricated mortgage commitment letter purportedly from RBC for a Niagara Falls property purchase. RBC confirmed to FSRA that "the commitment was not issued by RBC," and no such application existed.
The client was left with no mortgage financing to close and had to pay $2,000 in extension fees to the seller after obtaining a higher-rate loan elsewhere, according to the documents.
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Vilafana also submitted documents with forged client signatures to a lawyer for a mortgage refinancing deal in Parry Sound that failed to materialize despite the clients paying $3,650 in fees.
"Vilafana provided false and deceptive information in order to arrange mortgages based on false pretenses and earn commissions and other fees," the regulator concluded.
Valor withdrew its request for a hearing on the licence revocation. Vilafana's own mortgage broker license had lapsed in March 2023 after FSRA previously moved to revoke it.
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