A Montreal fraudster secretly registered 18% mortgages on homes he promised to buy outright
A Laval, Quebec, man has been convicted of eight fraud counts at the Montreal courthouse following a scheme in which he secretly registered high-interest mortgages on properties he had agreed to purchase, leaving homeowners unable to recover what they were owed.
Quebec Court Judge Julie Riendeau found Constantin Niphakis, 46, of Laval, guilty of eight out of 10 fraud charges arising from real estate transactions between 2016 and 2018.
Niphakis had run a campaign using the slogan “J’achète des maisons CA$H” — meaning “I pay cash for homes” — targeting sellers who Montreal police described as often in a vulnerable situation.
Victim losses exceeded $1.1 million, including one who lost more than $240,000. Sentencing is set to begin in December.
Hidden mortgages, abandoned properties
In six of the eight cases, Niphakis had entered notarised agreements to purchase, renovate, and resell a home within a year.
Instead, he registered mortgages on those properties at rates as high as 18% without notifying the original owners, and made no mortgage payments, paid no municipal taxes, and paid no insurance costs, according to the judgment.
In two further cases, properties he agreed to renovate before resale were left in worse condition; in one, the vendor returned to find the doors open “and that feathers, hair and feces were scattered throughout the interior,” Judge Riendeau noted in her decision.
An Ontario mortgage broker has agreed to pay a $40,000 penalty after admitting to multiple regulatory breaches, including allowing an unlicensed referral agent to handle client intake and providing false or deceptive information to lenders. https://t.co/fXKBX6Pqj7
— Canadian Mortgage Professional Magazine (@CMPmagazine) October 19, 2026
Victims describe the lasting toll
Prosecutor Rami El-Maoula was clear on intent.
“The evidence has shown beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Niphakis made false representations because he never intended to pay back the victims what was due to them,” he said.
Carol Ringrose, who had been fleeing an abusive relationship in 2016 when she sought a quick sale, described the full extent of the loss: “I lost my home. I lost everything. I ended up living with friends on couches and everything until I could get settled. And I’m renting a room.”
Eugene Saint-Germain, who had inherited a home from his sister and approached Niphakis after hearing his radio advertisement, reflected on the years it took to reach a verdict: “Finally, justice. It took a long time. Ten years is a long time.”
The case arrives amid broader industry concern about real estate fraud across Canada.
Lauren van den Berg, President and Chief Executive Officer of Mortgage Professionals Canada (MPC) in Toronto, previously said that “mortgage fraud not only undermines trust, it drives up housing costs for everyone.”
The Niphakis conviction is not an isolated case in Quebec. In May, four men were arrested in Montreal and Quebec City in a $4.5-million real estate fraud probe in which the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) alleged the group targeted financially distressed homeowners across approximately 20 incidents.
They lured them through online ads offering debt relief before victims “unknowingly signed documents transferring ownership of their property.”
Judge Riendeau’s ruling in the Niphakis case left no room for the argument that the scheme was a business venture gone wrong.
“It is the same repetition of the same conduct in multiple transactions that satisfy the court that the accused’s conduct cannot be viewed as a business venture that went wrong or as mere negligence,” she wrote.
Charges against co-accused Mark Blumenthal, 55, of Côte-St-Luc, Quebec, were withdrawn earlier in 2026.
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