The Insurance Council of British Columbia has cancelled Prince Martin Ola’s life and accident and sickness insurance license, and will not consider an application for re-licensing for three years after the former agent made numerous material misstatements to the regulator, including that he had no criminal record.
Formerly known as Prince Martin Mayele, the former agent claims that he did not recall being charged with fraud by wire, mail fraud and fraud by wire-radio or television in the United States in 2013. The sentence for the conviction was 30 months imprisonment and 36 months of supervised release and restitution.
“The licensee told the committee that they had no intent to misstate their past criminal conviction, but due to a prior medical condition from his adolescence, he has memory issues and at the time of his license application could not recall that they had a criminal conviction and therefore did not knowingly mislead or deceive council,” the reasons for decision in the case states.
Unable to provide medical evidence
Later Ola claimed that he was convicted for being the owner of the company responsible for the fraudulent transactions, but that his employees were the ones that conducted the transactions. He was also unable to provide any medical evidence or documentation of the condition which he says impaired his ability to remember such details.
The council cancelled the agent’s license without a hearing, saying a hearing would be detrimental to the due administration of the province’s Insurance Act.
First licensed in British Columbia in April 2023 after Ola completed an online application for a life accident and sickness agent’s license – answering no to the question about having a criminal record or not - the agent’s license was then active and inactive at different points throughout 2023 after Ola resigned from one agency before being fired by another in April 2024 when an investigation found that he failed to provide truthful responses during a criminal background check during his onboarding and in response to regulators.
Across the country, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario (FSRA) made the insurance council aware of Ola’s application for licensing in that province, as well, and made the regulator additionally aware of Ola’s previous criminal activity. Ola told the British Columbia council that the issues were not about him.
During the regulator’s investigation, it was also found that Ola was advertising home insurance and other products on their website even though Ola has never held a general insurance license in the province. Ola was asked to provide court documents related to his conviction, a written explanation for the material misstatements made, a written explanation for why they are advertising products they are not licensed to sell and an explanation regarding how Ola is holding themselves out to the public. (Signatures on Ola’s email to the council suggested that he was affiliated with an unlicensed agency which they later said was set up for marketing purposes only.)
Ola’s license is also being cancelled for application misstatements which suggested that he was an administrative staff only, with no power to hire or fire employees – these were later proven to be untrue, and for not advising council of his name change from Mayele to Ola within five business days.
“Council strongly believes that there is a risk to the public should the licensee continue to hold a license,” they state.