{"id":717946,"date":"2026-06-06T00:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717946\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T00:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T00:51:10","slug":"b-c-ponzi-schemer-greg-martel-arrested-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/717946\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. Ponzi schemer Greg Martel arrested in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

CBC News has confirmed that Greg Martel has been arrested in the South Caucasus nation of Georgia.<\/p>\n

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

He disappeared after his company, Shop Your Own Mortgage, was forced into receivership in 2023. <\/p>\n

He was tracked to Thailand and Dubai, UAE, according to investigators with PricewaterhouseCoopers, the trustee overseeing Martel’s receivership and bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The date and details of Martel’s arrest are unknown.<\/p>\n

Global Affairs Canada said it’s aware of the arrest of a Canadian citizen in Georgia. <\/p>\n

“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.” <\/p>\n

\"AGreg 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)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The scheme ran for years with early investors getting paid out with the money put in by later investors.<\/p>\n

The first cracks started showing in late 2022, when a number of investors stopped receiving payouts they were owed. <\/p>\n

By spring 2023, the scheme had collapsed completely and lawsuits against Martel began piling up.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Martel has not been charged criminally.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-717946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}