Police search office of suspended mortgage broker Dennis Khanna
Search comes two months after province suspended Khanna's licence
That's where Dinesh Khanna, known by Dennis, operated a mortgage business called Metro Financial Planning until his license was suspended by the Financial Services Commission of Ontario in December.
Const. Stephen Welton confirmed the search warrant was related to ongoing fraud and sexual assault investigations.
- Mortgage broker suspended, alleged to have preyed on desperate clients
- Province didn't warn borrowers about problems with mortgage broker
'Pattern of manipulation and exploitation'
Provincial regulators suspended Khanna's licence in December, alleging that he carried out a "pattern of manipulation and exploitation" of his clients through his Metro Financial Planning Limited business.
The regulator, FSCO, is pushing for the licences to be completely revoked. That's the subject of Financial Services Tribunal hearings that began last month.
The 60-year-old broker was also arrested and charged with sexual assault by Hamilton Police in December.
An 'F' from the Better Business Bureau
In the order to suspend Khanna's licence, the regulator outlined what it deemed manipulative practices:
FSCO alleged that Khanna took out mortgages in already financially distressed clients' names without their knowledge, charged significant fees and, when some borrowers couldn't make their payments, transferred the homes or titles into the names of his family members.
Outside of the provincial regulatory process, signs of trouble popped up elsewhere.
People who said they'd used Khanna's Metro Financial Planning, Inc., complained in online message boards going back to summer 2014 about Khanna's purported business practices.
And the Better Business Bureau issued an F in November 2012 to Metro Financial Planning Inc., saying that the business has claimed it was BBB-accredited and used the BBB logo when it wasn't, even after being told to stop.