Former broker sentenced for fraud

HEATHER POLISCHUK REGINA — Having been found guilty of trying to defraud two clients of close to $20,000, a former Regina mortgage broker will spend weekends in jail for the next few months.

Joseph M. Siganski was convicted in December of five charges: fraud over $5,000 and two counts each of forgery and uttering a forged document. The offences spanned a period between mid-February and mid-May 2010.

He returned to Court of Queen’s Bench for sentencing Thursday.

He had been hoping for a conditional sentence that would allow him to serve a jail term in the community, but, referring to Siganski’s actions as “blatant and deliberate,” Justice Janet McMurtry instead sentenced the 49-year-old to 90 days in jail to be served intermittently.

“Mr. Siganski sought to take by fraud from the (complainants) a relatively small sum,” McMurtry said. “However, he has expressed no real remorse for, or acknowledgment of, the harm he has done. He has provided only excuses.”

Siganski was working as a mortgage broker in Regina when a fellow broker from Saskatoon asked him and others for help for two Saskatoon clients who had been unable to get financing to buy a small apartment building.

On his colleague’s behalf, Siganski contacted the Fort Qu’Appelle regional office of Peace Hills Trust (PHT) to ask if the firm would be interested. A PHT manager told Siganski that her business did not pay broker fees or collect fees on behalf of brokers, meaning Siganski would have to deal directly with his client on that issue.

During the course of the transaction, Siganski altered letters of interest and commitment from PHT to the client, adding several words to each: “Lender Fee: To be 6% of funded amount.” That “fee” amounted to $19,125 of the authorized financing of $318,750.

The clients’ financing was halted when PHT and the Saskatoon broker learned Siganski had altered the letter of commitment. (The financing agreement was later revived without the involvement of Siganski.)

Siganski told court his actions were intended to get a deal between PHT and the clients and get paid for his efforts. In finding Siganski guilty, McMurtry determined the former broker had “offered (to the court) a version of events that often defied common sense and belief.”

She found that Siganski altered the letters with the intention that the clients believe it was PHT making the fee request in order to dupe the clients into paying him the $19,125 — less one per cent for his Saskatoon colleague. That colleague was not involved in the offence.

While McMurtry said the amount was relatively small, she added the offence was made more serious by the fact Siganski was in a position of trust. Since Siganski — who is reportedly a church-going family man — stated he never set out to harm or deceive anyone, McMurtry said he has failed to recognize the harm he could have caused had the plan succeeded.

Siganski lost his broker’s licence in 2010 after the incident came to light.

“HE HAS EXPRESSED NO REAL REMORSE FOR, OR ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF, THE HARM HE HAS DONE.”

JANET MCMURTRY