Ontario’s mortgage broker licensing agency is warning the public not to do business with lender and realtor Sam Kamra, and to make a report to the police if they’ve been a victim of fraud involving him.
Seven lawsuits have named Mr. Kamra as a defendant in mortgage-related cases since 2020. Court rulings in three cases, including two ongoing legal actions, described Mr. Kamra arranging a series of private mortgages for borrowers that escalated in size and cost, resulting in defaults and the court-ordered sale of homes owned by some of the plaintiffs.
In an affidavit filed for sisters Lisa and Sonia Bihun, the plaintiffs in one of the ongoing cases, senior law clerk Julie Patterson with Morra Caruso Law described this pattern of lending activity as an “equity-strip” operation.
The filing accuses Mr. Kamra of employing multiple tactics, including imposing a mix of high interest rates and fees that can lead borrowers to fall behind on payments. The missed payments can then get added to new loans, which are renegotiated with even higher fees and rates. This cycle can continue until the loans absorb all the equity value of a borrower’s home and the owner defaults, followed by a forced sale where the lender collects the money they are owed.
The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) issued the bulletin about Mr. Kamra on June 12, and warned: “There are potential risks if you obtain mortgages arranged by or through this unlicensed individual.”
The release warned of specific numbered companies used by Mr. Kamra, 2707551 Ontario Inc. and 2724582 Ontario Inc., and also said borrowers may feel pressured to sign an illegal release promising not to communicate with regulators.
The bulletin doesn’t identify that Mr. Kamra is a licensed realtor, currently working as a salesperson with Re/Max Millennium Real Estate Inc. in the Greater Toronto Area. Mr. Kamra’s record of discipline on the Real Estate Council of Ontario (RECO) directory is blank, and there’s been no warning issued by RECO about doing business with him.
On June 26, Mr. Kamra’s lawyer, Obaidul Hoque, sent a legal letter to FSRA demanding the removal of the warning and disputing the source of the allegations. The letter said that FSRA notified Mr. Kamra it was investigating him beginning in February, but said that he has not been served with any formal notice of findings.
Mr. Kamra disputes that he has acted as a mortgage broker, but acknowledges that he is a private mortgage lender.
“Any lender has a legal right to advance money and for the borrower to borrow it. There’s nothing illegal about that,” Mr. Kamra said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “I’ve never been involved in any sort of nonsense, whatever they’re insinuating – criminal activity. Like, I don’t know what is criminal about anything that I’ve done.”
Mr. Kamra added that he has documentation to support his case against plaintiffs “when the time comes.”
Much of the information in the FSRA bulletin relies on a December, 2024, Ontario Superior Court ruling by Justice Ira G. Parghi that set aside a legal release signed by a mortgage borrower named Rhonda Gold, who complained to the Ontario regulator. Mr. Kamra’s appeal of the ruling was dismissed in February of this year.
The release Ms. Gold signed said Mr. Kamra did not bear liability and that Ms. Gold could not contact regulators about his conduct. In her ruling voiding the document, Justice Parghi described Mr. Kamra’s role in a series of mortgages taken out by Ms. Gold, 60, a former Toronto resident who bakes specialty cakes for a living. Ms. Gold’s mortgages fell into default, and the house she lived in for 30 years has already been sold after a court-ordered sale.
Justice Parghi noted that the private mortgage lenders that Ms. Gold connected with included Mr. Kamra’s mother, Sana Abdallah, as well as a former girlfriend, Danielle Desjardins. The judge rejected Mr. Kamra’s assertion that these people were at arm’s length from him.
“Mr. Kamra was behind the mortgages and is the real lender. He concealed this fact from Ms. Gold. He did his best to conceal it from this court,” wrote Justice Parghi. “Mr. Kamra’s deception created the false impression that he was helping Ms. Gold to pay off each successive debt. In reality, he was helping her to pay off one debt to him by taking on a new, and even more expensive, debt to him.”
According to Justice Parghi’s ruling, what started in 2019 with a $250,000 mortgage arranged by Mr. Kamra turned into a debt of more than $848,679 by August, 2022.
Daniel McConville, a partner with Whelton Huiton LLP who has been representing Ms. Gold pro bono, said her mortgages got more and more expensive because of very high fees and interest rates.
The final loan charged an interest rate of just under 51 per cent over 10 months. Justice Parghi said in her ruling that the rate was “egregiously” high. According to her ruling, at one point Ms. Gold’s mortgage was being renewed every three months – without her apparent knowledge or signature – and the fees added up to $111,930.
Mr. Kamra is facing an order for interim legal costs in the case, which his lawyer Mr. Hoque said they are planning to appeal.
Mr. McConville said he’s ready for trial on the larger issue of the mortgages and the sale of Ms. Gold’s home, after the appeals process for the interim costs order has played out. The broader details have not yet been tested in court, and Mr. Kamra denies the allegations.
“The fundamental problem at the heart of all of this is, in the private mortgage world, there are good business reasons why mortgagees have a lot of power in the system,” said Mr. McConville, referring to laws and procedures that provide financial security for banks and other large mortgage lenders as well as small private lenders. “But it can be abused. You will often see private mortgagees giving discharge statements, all these fees – extra fees, charges – that borrowers are faced with.”
Private mortgages are big business in Ontario. According to FSRA’s most recent annual report on private lending, for the year 2024, private mortgage lenders accounted for 15.8 per cent of the market, or more than 65,000 loans worth $32-billion.
The report says 31 per cent of those who used a mortgage broker said they obtained a mortgage from a non-traditional lender. Of those borrowers, 53 per cent had household incomes under $40,000 a year.
In March, the Bihun sisters obtained a rare ruling overturning a registrar’s default judgment against them in 2024. The judgment had resulted from a mortgage enforcement action taken by associates of Mr. Kamra, including his brother Bilal Abdallah, who is a licensed mortgage broker.
“The defendants submit that they are victims of a fraudulent scheme to which the plaintiff, its principals, the lawyers used by the defendants, and others, are all linked. In my view, the evidence provides support for this submission,” wrote Justice Paul Schabas.
The sisters borrowed $600,000 in 2023 at a 10.99-per-cent interest rate “with the assistance of Sam Kamra,” according to the ruling.
In 2024, another $150,000 mortgage with a 29-per-cent interest rate was registered against their home by 1000101702 Ontario Inc., a company where Mr. Abdallah is the sole director, corporate filings show.
The Bihuns said they did not sign that mortgage, and according to Justice Schabas, “there is evidence suggesting their signatures were forged.” The ruling states Mr. Abdallah declined to answer questions about that mortgage.
Lawyers for the Bihun sisters declined to comment as a legal challenge to the mortgages and the 2024 default decision, which they filed in 2025, has also not been adjudicated. Mr. Kamra denies the allegations contained in the Bihuns’ legal filings.