Suspended mortgage broker linked to dental clinic where patients may have been exposed to diseases

CHCH News has learned about a stunning connection between a former Hamilton mortgage broker accused of fraud and sexual assault and the Burlington dentist who’s in hot water after 9000 of his patients were asked to be tested for HIV and hepatitis.

Former broker Dinesh Khanna and Dr. Vic Handa are uncle and nephew and Handa was in one way or another involved in several of his uncle’s suspected fraudulent schemes.

Hamilton Police began investigating Khanna in 2015 after three women claimed they were sexually assaulted at his Metro Financial King Street office. But then Khanna became the focus of a growing fraud investigation and last year detectives laid additional charges, including 11 counts of fraud.

Last month, after a nine day financial services tribunal, his mortgage licence was revoked.

“They did pull all the files from Metro Financial Planning and what they found was over 300 violations,” said Attorney Konstantine Ketsetzis.

Ketsetzis says he has never seen anything like this before. According to the documents, Khanna allegedly preyed on people with no other options, and who were in a financial bind. The Financial Services Commission of Ontario, a government regulatory service that protects the public interest, says Khanna misled and deceived clients by registering mortgages on their property without their knowledge.

In many of the cases the lenders were Khanna’s family members. In the documents, Khanna’s nephew, Dr. Victor Handa, the owner of Upper Middle Dentistry, was listed 26 times.

“Whether or not they had active information on what was going on I can’t say for certain however, presumably there would be some knowledge of what was going on,” said Ketsetzis.

Dozens of victims provided information to financial services. One man was completely unaware that a third mortgage of $20,000 was registered against his property in the name of Dr. Handa. The man says he had never seen the paperwork before.

Many people defaulted on additional mortgages they say they never knew existed. Some came home to find eviction letters from Khanna and Metro Financial.

“It doesn’t even look like legally he had a right to take the homes. He would just kind of post notices and then people would vacate out of fear,” Ketsetzis added.

According to financial services, in several cases Khanna would then rent or sell the properties with large financial gains – possibly in the millions.