Some can actually steal your property from you; Property title fraud is a 300 million dollar a year business in Ontario

BY MICHAEL THOMAS

 “Title insurance is a fraud because you should not have to insure something that you don’t own. The Ontario government owns that data, but that’s the only way that you can insure yourself if somebody else steals your property.”

These words came from Mr. Martin McDermott, an expert in databases and electronics who became aware of the land title racket when his own mother’s property was stolen, and who is now in the business of exposing the people behind this grand scheme.

He has also been assisting the victims of title fraud, but of course, the mainstream media has little interest in carrying this story.

Imagine living in Ontario or Manitoba, where there is a structure in place that enables title fraud, allowing criminals to steal properties from their rightful owners. In Ontario alone, this equals 300 million annually in stolen property through title fraud. According to Will Dove of “Iron Will Report”, the rightful owners have very little chance of ever recovering their titles again.

Here is how this grand theft is accomplished.

Any licensed lawyer with the Law Society of Upper Canada who understands this system can steal your property.

The only thing he or she needs is to make an application to the “Teranet,” company to receive credentials. They will receive a floppy disk and a special encrypted key-coded password, and they can represent both buyer and seller. The crooked lawyers would just transfer the properties to themselves.

Mr. McDermott said that by 2005 the law society had 72 lawyers under investigation for multiple properties each in their possession.

Let us have a look at who and what is responsible for making all this theft possible.

Have you ever heard of “Teranet,” the privately owned land title corporation, which handles all land transfers in Ontario and Manitoba?

According to McDermott, Teranet was created some 20 years ago and is the brainchild of an Iranian immigrant named Fred Kastrevi who came to Canada in 1966. The company is also said to have offshore connections in the Cayman Islands.

Teranet runs the complete title data software independent of the government and this applies to every residential property in Ontario and Manitoba.

What’s more troubling is that there is no one from the government overseeing who is monkeying with that data.

McDermott said when he explained what happened here, he was told that many Americans would be appalled at the level of non-protection these Canadian provinces offered property owners.

As I listened to this interview, I got the feeling that with the system in place, any lawyer who knows how to use this layout can steal someone’s property in these two provinces without the person having any knowledge or recourse.

The process of trying to recover your stolen property can be very tedious and expensive, because all the Land Registry Offices across the provinces have been shut down.

McDermott was asked how property owners could protect themselves from this to which he answered, “You have to go through a lawyer, you have to get your documents printed and once that’s verified, then you’ll need what is called title insurance. There is no way to lock your property down in the system to prevent it from being stolen, because everybody’s property is for sale in the system. 

When I reverse engineered the process, I found a vital character flaw in the system of whoever developed it. It is then I said whoever developed this needs to come to trial. We will never find those people; we will never bring them to trial. The only other option is to buy title insurance.”

“Another one is the liens,” McDermott said, “If you have a contractor friend, a contractor can put a contractor’s lien on your property, and that lien would have to be removed through that contractor, which would give you some protection and it would be cheaper than buying title insurance.

The Land Titles Assurance Fund is supposed to supply people with the information, and you do not need a lawyer, but Jeffery Lem who is the “Director of Titles” blocks this process and so everyone has to go to court and spend a lot of money,” Mc Dermott shared.

Again, as I listened and watched this interview it was like watching a bad movie that just kept getting worse. McDermott named one lawyer, Howard Greenspoon, who because of his golf country club membership and Synagogue affiliations had his $64,000 fine against him reduced to just $15,000.

Home and property buyers please be aware and do your homework before and after purchasing any property in Ontario or Manitoba.

A word to the wise is enough.