Three Langley businesspeople have won a $275,000 court judgment against a controversial real estate developer who was extradited to the U.S. last year on fraud charges.
Donald Killeen, Dave Jarvis, and Lucia Cardarelli all sued Mark Chandler and two numbered companies linked to him earlier this year, claiming they had lost tens of thousands of dollars each when they loaned Chandler money during the troubled construction of the Murrayville House condo project.
According to a statement of claim filed with the courts in January, back in 2015 Killeen loaned $85,000 to the numbered company that owned the Murrayville House site. Jarvis loaned $35,000, and Cardelli loaned $155,000.
All the loans were structured to pay back at a 10 per cent interest rate, and upon completion of the development each of the three were supposed to receive one of the units in the complex.
Previous lawsuits and court filings have shown that a number of people made similar loans and/or purchase agreements during the protracted development of the condo complex.
According to the Bowra Group, which was the court-appointed trustee for the condo project after it became insolvent, some units were sold multiple times.
The case also targeted a numbered company that owned a home in High Point, a neighbourhood in South Langley. The company that owned the house had a sole director – Chandler’s wife. The suit alleged Chandler diverted at least some money from Murrayville House condo project to buying the home on 198th Street instead.
The court case against the companies was brief.
Neither firm mounted a defense in court. Having failed to respond, the court ordered a default judgment against the two numbered companies. Chandler was not named in the default judgment.
B.C. Supreme Court ordered $275,000 be paid to the trio, as well as more than $1,500 in court costs.
Chandler was extradited to the United States in the fall of 2019, where he faced a fraud case over an unrelated real estate development in Los Angeles going back almost a decade.
Lawsuits have surrounded Murrayville House for several years, as creditors have argued in the court about who is owed money first from the proceeds of the eventual condo sales.
