B.C. Ponzi schemer Greg Martel arrested in Georgia

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CBC News has confirmed that Greg Martel has been arrested in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia.

Martel is the Victoria, B.C., mortgage broker who perpetrated a Ponzi scheme that brought in over $300 million from 1,700 investors.

He disappeared after his company, Shop Your Own Mortgage, was forced into receivership in 2023.

He was tracked to Thailand and Dubai, UAE, according to investigators with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the trustee overseeing Martel’s receivership and bankruptcy.

The date and details of Martel’s arrest are unknown.

Global Affairs Canada said it’s aware of the arrest of a Canadian citizen in Georgia.

“Consular officials are providing consular assistance and are in contact with local authorities,” it said in an emailed statement. “Due to privacy considerations, no further information can be disclosed.”

A man wearing sunglasses and a ball cap in swim trunks and a sweater sits in a boat on a white bench, smoking a cigar and smiling broadly at the camera while the vast expanse of a deep blue sea is laid out behind him. — Greg Martel is the subject of an arrest warrant in Canada and a detention order in the United States. He has not been criminally charged. (Greg Martel/Facebook)

Martel’s Ponzi scheme consisted of selling investments in fabricated real estate bridge loans, promising extravagant rates of return, sometimes as high as 100 per cent on an annualized basis.

The scheme ran for years with early investors getting paid out with the money put in by later investors.

The first cracks started showing in late 2022, when a number of investors stopped receiving payouts they were owed.

By spring 2023, the scheme had collapsed completely and lawsuits against Martel began piling up.

In piecing together Martel’s financial house of cards, PwC estimates that the Ponzi scheme brought in $301 million from investors and paid out $210 million. Investigators say the remaining $91 million went to options trading losses, other failing business ventures, and to pay for his extravagant lifestyle.

Martel has not been charged criminally.

He was found in contempt of court for not co-operating in the receivership proceedings and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Similarly, he is the subject of a detention order issued in the U.S.

Canada does not have a formal bilateral extradition treaty with Georgia but both countries are signatories to international treaties that make extradition possible in certain circumstances.