Christmas in jail for Vancouver condo developer facing fraud trial in new year
Dan Fumano
The Province
Vancouver real estate developer Mark John Chandler is spending Christmas in a California jail as he awaits a trial on felony fraud charges.
And for many of those in Metro Vancouver who knew Chandler through his dealings in the local real estate market, this comes as welcome news.
Chris Stanley, one of many aggrieved presale buyers at Chandler’s beleaguered Langley condo project, said the developer deserves “a mine’s worth” of coal in his stocking this year.
Chandler, 56, had spent more than three years battling extradition to the United States, where he faces felony charges in connection with an alleged fraudulent real estate investment scheme.
Chandler’s last hope of preventing extradition was extinguished in October, when the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his appeal. He was then transferred to the U.S. in November, where Federal Bureau of Prisons records show he’s now incarcerated at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Centre.
Upon learning this week that Chandler is in jail, Stanley said: “Honestly, I feel relief. Because I know that the United States’ legal system has teeth. It’s karma. … He’s locked behind bars, so he can’t hurt other people.”
Earlier this month, a U.S. District Judge ordered Chandler to stand trial before a jury in April of 2020. He faces six felony counts of wire fraud, a charge that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
None of the U.S. charges against Chandler have been proven in court. In B.C., Chandler’s real estate dealings have been the subject of regulatory action and piles of lawsuits, but he has not been charged with any criminal offences.
In March 2018, during one of the hearings connected to Chandler’s extradition, it was revealed in court that the RCMP was investigating his Langley condo development. At some point, the investigation was transferred from the Langley RCMP to the RCMP’s Federal Serious and Organized Crime unit, but B.C. RCMP spokesman Cpl. Christopher Manseau confirmed this week there is no longer any ongoing local criminal investigation into Chandler and Murrayville.
Chandler’s alleged “fraudulent investment scheme” in California dates back to 2009, according to the FBI evidence relied upon in the extradition request. But Chandler was active in Metro Vancouver real estate both before and after his time in L.A.
After his arrest in May 2015 in connection with the U.S. charges, Chandler got back into the real estate game in Metro Vancouver.
Many people here, like Stanley, wish he never had.
In the first two years after Chandler’s arrest on the U.S. charges and his return to Vancouver, his company developed a 91-unit condo project in Langley called Murrayville House. But, in 2017, B.C.’s real estate watchdog issued an urgent notice ordering Chandler’s company to cease marketing the Murrayville development, citing a “serious concern” the developer had sold some units to multiple buyers.
Later, after the B.C. Supreme Court ordered the Murrayville project into receivership, the receiver reported some of the same individual units had been sold two, three and even four times to different buyers.
In January of this year, B.C.’s Office of the Superintendent of Real Estate issued a notice of hearing for Chandler and his company. Superintendent of Real Estate Micheal Noseworthy said this week that dates are being considered for a two-week hearing in spring 2020.
Asked if the B.C. hearing would proceed even if Chandler is still incarcerated in the U.S., Noseworthy said: “If he is unable to attend in person but wishes to give evidence, possible options include video conferencing and sworn affidavits. The superintendent’s hearing is independent and may proceed despite other legal proceedings.”
Chandler is being represented on the U.S. charges by a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles.
Kelly Burke, a retired train conductor, and his wife tried to buy a Murrayville unit in 2017. After the project fell through and the presale contracts were cancelled amid a tangle of litigation, the Burkes spent almost a year moving around the Fraser Valley. In an affidavit filed in court, Burke wrote “as our closing date was constantly pushed back, we had to live in our trailer … forcing us to move our trailer daily and weekly and to occupy Costco and Walmart parking lots, side streets and friends’ driveways.”
Reached this week, Burke said: “That made my Christmas — hearing that (guy) is in jail. … That’s where he should be.”
Gary Janzen and his wife Karen sold the home they’d owned for 15 years and signed a presale agreement in April 2016 to buy a Murrayville condo. While the Janzens waited through repeated delays to take possession of their condo, Metro Vancouver home values soared. They lived out of suitcases in 15 different places over 31 months, while Murrayville was ensnared in several lawsuits until, last year, a B.C. Supreme Court judge ruled the presale contracts would be cancelled so the units could be resold at market rates so the private mortgage lenders could recoup their debts.
Janzen, who runs a charity doing anti-poverty work in 39 countries, said this week that the Murrayville fiasco meant he had to delay his planned retirement.
“But you’ve got to keep going, you’ve got to pick up and take what you’ve been given,” he said. “Because otherwise, bitterness and anger can really chew you up. So we’ve had to let go of that stuff.”
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