Regulator targets verification failures and undisclosed fees in three investment deals
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued a notice of proposal against mortgage broker Jennifer Iachelli and level 2 mortgage agent Nicole Geldart. The action stemmed from a series of investment deals that allegedly left a business partner solely responsible for losses on three properties.
FSRA proposed an administrative penalty of $50,000 for Iachelli and $55,000 for Geldart. The regulator also sought to add 24‑month supervisory conditions to Geldart’s licence. Both individuals requested hearings before the Financial Services Tribunal.
Alleged scheme across Port Dover, Hamilton and Ancaster
According to the notice, “Iachelli and her husband entered into a business relationship with the complainant (‘JD’)…to purchase, renovate and sell homes,” involving properties in Port Dover, Hamilton and Ancaster between February 2022 and June 2023.
FSRA alleged that “the partnership was not in writing” and that JD “was listed as the only purchaser of the Properties, without his knowledge or consent, and was financially responsible for the losses on the Properties.”
FSRA said Iachelli “represented herself as JD’s mortgage broker” and “provided false information concerning JD’s income, assets, and financial circumstances,” while also “sign[ing] documents using JD’s name without his consent.”
The regulator alleged that the same inflated profile was reused across multiple applications and renewals, including a $375,000 first mortgage and $185,000 second mortgage on the Port Dover property and a later $550,000 refinancing of the Hamilton property.
Geldart, JD’s broker of record and co‑broker with Iachelli, “failed to verify any of the false information provided by Iachelli, including failing to confirm the information with JD and failing to confirm with him that he was the sole borrower,” FSRA said.
The notice alleged that she “prepared subsequent mortgages and renewals without completing new applications, and relied on the false information from the original mortgages.”
Moreover, she did not conduct suitability assessments, “received remuneration for dealing in mortgages from a person or entity other than her brokerage,” and “acted as a mortgage administrator on three occasions without being licensed to do so.”
On the Port Dover file, FSRA alleged that JD’s digital signatures appeared on renewals “which he asserts that he did not provide,” and that rental payments flowed first to Iachelli and later to Geldart, who “withheld the December 2023 and January 2024 rent payments to apply them to an overdue broker fee…The mortgage went into default.”
In Hamilton, the notice stated that an additional $70,000 advanced on refinancing “was paid to one of [Iachelli’s] corporate accounts rather than to JD,” and that the property ultimately sold at a loss with JD as “the sole borrower on the mortgage.”
FSRA said it was “satisfied that imposing administrative penalties…will satisfy” its goals of promoting compliance and preventing individuals from “deriving, directly or indirectly, any economic benefit” from contraventions.
Conditions proposed for continued practice
In the current notice, FSRA proposed that Geldart would only continue to operate as a level 2 agent under tight conditions for 24 months. The regulator sought to require that she “verify borrower information on all mortgage applications with the borrower in person,” and “complete and document suitability assessments on all mortgages, including those involving private lenders.”
Additonally, she must obtain written approval of those assessments from a supervising broker, accept all compensation only through her brokerage, cease acting as a de‑facto administrator, provide regular attestations to her brokerage and FSRA, and step back from any role as a partner or director of a brokerage.
Both Iachelli and Geldart are entitled to a hearing before the Financial Services Tribunal, and the notice emphasized that if no hearing was requested within 15 days, FSRA would issue orders as described. The allegations have not been proven at the time of the notice, and related civil litigation among JD, the brokers, their brokerages and other parties remain ongoing.
Recently, FSRA has refused to renew the mortgage agent licence of Frank (Frankie) Attard and imposed $25,000 in administrative penalties over false-document findings. The regulator also imposed $4,000 in administrative penalties on former mortgage agent Mai Anh (Cindy) Tran after finding she took an off-book payment from a client and submitted inaccurate information and documents in a private-lender application.
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