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Tag: Alberta Securities Commission

  • In Alberta, 1 in 3 Report Being Approached With A Possible Fraudulent Investment, Securities Commission Says

    recommendedreading1Carefully checking and protecting before investing is part of the theme behind Fraud Prevention Month in Alberta, the Alberta Securities Commission said today.

    As part of its initiative, ASC rolled out a noontime “free lunch” in Calgary. The agency said it used the Mighty Skillet food truck at City Hall “to offer Calgarians a free sandwich and encourage them to make use of the ASC’s online resources.

     The idea, ASC says, was to drive home the point that “No lunch is free – including today’s.”

    As another key part of the initiative, Alberta created Checkfirst.ca, a site that includes a “quiz to educate Albertans about the risk for investment fraud,” ASC said.

    “One in three Albertans report being approached with a possible fraudulent investment,” ASC said.

    Read ASC’s statement on the fraud-prevention initiative. Visit the ASC website.

  • In Case Reminiscent Of Profitable Sunrise, Alberta Securities Commission Finds That Dale Joseph Edgar St. Jean And Gregory Dennis Tindall Made False Statements And Conducted Ponzi Scheme

    recommendedreading1Two men conducted an offering fraud tied to a purported “bridge lending” business and wiped out investors in a $52 million Ponzi scheme, the Alberta Securities Commission said yesterday.

    Some of the allegations against Dale Joseph Edgar St. Jean and Gregory Dennis Tindall were remarkably similar to allegations in the United States against the Profitable Sunrise “program,” which also had a purported bridge-loan business. While the Profitable Sunrise “Long Haul” plan promised 2.7 percent a day and purportedly was operated by “Roman Novak,” St. Jean and Tindall promised far less: between 15 percent and 22 percent a year.

    St. Jean and Tindall were at the helm of entities known as TransCap Corporation and Strata-Trade Corporation, the ASC said. The agency was among the first to issue a warning against Profitable Sunrise earlier this year.

    “The ASC panel found that payments to TransCap and Strata-Trade investors were funded from their own and their fellow investors’ money, ‘by definition, an unsustainable ‘Ponzi’ scheme,’” ASC said in a statement. “Investors (Albertans among them) having been lured by deceptive or false information into investing in a Ponzi scheme, their pecuniary interests were placed at serious risk.  Indeed, there appears to be no money remaining to pay them any interest owing or repay their principal investments.”

    Another similarity between the St. Jean and Tindall capers and Profitable Sunrise is that investors appear to have dealt mostly with pitchmen regurgitating the company line, not the operators.  (Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO) recited by commission-based pitchmen is an element in many Ponzi schemes, including AdSurfDaily in 2008. It’s often the case that the pitchmen aren’t financial professionals and are not licensed to offer securities.)

    It remains unclear whether “Roman Novak,” the purported operator of Profitable Sunrise, actually exists.

    With respect to the St. Jean/Tindall caper, Tindall’s “current whereabouts are unknown,” ASC said in its decision.

    Both men were charged by the SEC in a 2010 case that alleged they were managing members of a $34 million offering fraud based in Florida that led to the collapse of two hedge funds known as Arcanum Equity Fund LLC and Vestium Equity Fund LLC and subsequent bankruptcy filings.

    Bridge-loan scams are not rare — and may feature an offer that sounds plausible on the surface: a company solicits loans from one subset of customers at a lower interest rate to lend out to another subset at a higher interest rate, purportedly profiting from the spread. The “business” brings both securities laws and lending laws into play. (See the California Desist and Refrain Order against Profitable Sunrise.)

    In the HYIP sphere, the “model” quickly can become absurd on its face. Profitable Sunrise, for instance, was positioned as an enterprise that paid MLM-style affiliate commissions on three levels while also paying out preposterous sums of compound interest on a daily basis. (The infamous AdSurfDaily Ponzi scheme ($119 million) operated with a similar confluence of payout schemes between 2006 and 2008, although ASD did not purport to be a bridge lender.)

    One of the most infamous bridge-lending scams in U.S. history was the Nicholas Cosmo and Agape World Inc. scam, a Ponzi scheme that gathered more than $400 million and put Cosmo in federal prison for 25 years. Some of his pitchmen also were charged criminally.

    Some HYIP pitchmen may make boiler-room cold calls to fleece marks. Others may line up their so-called “warm market” as investors, perhaps by sponsoring seminars and webinars and encouraging family members, friends and business and social acquaintances to attend.

    Members of one Alberta family alone lost more than $1.6 million to the St. Jean/Tindall scam, ASC said in its decision.

    One investor (“TL”) and his wife plowed $1.22 million into the scam after being advised by a pitchman that TCC was “in the business of offering short-term loans at high interest, that St. Jean was its president, and that an investment in TCC was ‘without . . . risk’ – it was ‘supposed to be solid’, and ‘there was no threat of losing principal or interest.’”

    Profitable Sunrise, meanwhile, told investors that “investments in the program were insured by a leading investment bank,” the SEC said in bringing fraud charges in April 2013.

    Secrecy often is an element of HYIP scams.

    “In response to a Staff demand for documents evidencing contracts for securities purchases, ‘forward committing contracts’ and bridge financing contracts, St. Jean responded that TCC was ‘engaged in these business activities through other entities under private and confidential agreements’ and ‘[t]herefore [did] not have any specific documentation respecting any specific trade transaction,’” ASC said in its decision.

     

  • BULLETIN: Alberta Securities Commission Issues Warning On ‘Profitable Sunrise’ After First Calgary Financial Observes ‘Trend’ Of ‘Suspicious’ Overseas Transactions

    breakingnews72BULLETIN: The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has issued a warning on the Profitable Sunrise “program.” The Canadian agency’s move followed on the heels of reports from First Calgary Financial that “several of its Calgary customers have attempted to withdraw significant amounts of funds from their accounts for wire transfers to the Czech Republic,” ASC said.

    “Albertans should be aware that Profitable Sunrise and its agents are not registered to sell securities in Alberta,” the agency said.

    ASC is Alberta’s securities regulator. The agency noted that the Securities Division of the North Carolina Secretary of State issued a cease-and-desist order to Profitable Sunrise last month, amid allegations that the “program” was selling unregistered securities.

    “It’s important for investors to know that there is no such thing as a high return, no risk investment,” said Bill Rice , chair and CEO of the ASC. “If you are persuaded to send money overseas, it may be difficult, if not impossible to get it back if something goes wrong.”

    The United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority issued a warning on Profitable Sunrise last week. So did the Alabama Securities Commission in the United States.

    First Calgary is Canada’s ninth-largest credit union. A First Calgary executive said the company contacted ASC after observing unusual transactions.

    “Our front-line employees are trained to identify suspicious transactions by members so that we may be able to stop them from becoming the possible victims of an investment scam,” said Debbie Pratt, vice president of retail banking for First Calgary Financial.  “In this case, we noticed a trend and a quick call to the ASC allowed us to alert our members.”

    Profitable Sunrise lists a business address in the United Kingdom. Regardless, the enterprise is soliciting funds to be sent to Raiffeisenbank AS in the Czech Republic, according to North Carolina investigators. An entity known as Melland Company SRO was listed in Profitable Sunrise wiring instructions as the beneficiary, according to the North Carolina order.

    A credit union used by a North Carolina-based Profitable Sunrise investor blocked at least one transaction directed toward the Czech bank, citing suspicions of fraud, according to the order.

    Among other claims, Profitable Sunrise purported to offer a “Long Haul” plan that paid 2.7 percent a week with an Easter payout. The Profitable Sunrise “program” is being pitched on well-known Ponzi scheme forums such as TalkGold and MoneyMakerGroup.

    Zeek Rewards, which the SEC in August 2012 called a $600 million Ponzi- and pyramid scheme, was promoted in part from the same forums. Some individuals have promoted both Zeek and Profitable Sunrise.

     

  • BULLETIN: Gold Quest International (GQI) UPLINE/DOWNLINE Groups Will Be Subject Of Hearing By Ontario Securities Commission; Case Alleges Respondents Were Both Investors And Promoters Who Pushed Unregistered Securities Of Bizarre Firm

    EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re pushing Ponzi schemes on MoneyMakerGroup, TalkGold and other criminal forums, allegations brought by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) against geographically localized promoters of Gold Quest International (GQI) may interrupt your delusions of invincibility over the next several weeks.

    Upline and downline networks within Gold Quest International (GQI), a bizarre company taken down by the SEC just three months before the U.S. Secret Service raid on AdSurfDaily in 2008, are in the news in the Canadian province of Ontario.

    The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) will conduct a hearing March 24 to consider taking provincial action against local promoters of GQI, which already has been ruled a Ponzi scheme, pyramid scheme and “sham” investment by the Alberta Securities Commission.

    OSC pointed out that GQI “has never been registered in any capacity with the Commission” and alleged that its promoters within the province also were not registered.

    The case is important because it signals that Ontario regulators have backtracked millions of dollars of GQI transactions that originated in the province, segregated the source of the money to specific groups of promoters within the province and now intend to hold them accountable for spreading financial misery to their fellow citizens.

    The odds of the respondents avoiding sanctions after the hearing may be low. One Ontario man implicated in the GQI scheme already has filed bankruptcy and has been ordered to pay $652,000 in disgorgement and penalties for his role in GQI.  The man, Donald Iain Buchanan, allegedly was introduced to GQI by some of the promoters who are the subject of the hearing next month.

    And the odds may be weighted even more heavily against the promoters prevailing at the hearing because of the bizarre claims of GQI itself, which purported to have a “Lord” among its key managers and said it was immune to regulatory oversight because it was an extension of a North Dakota sovereign “Indian” tribe and was permitted to operate untouched from Las Vegas.

    GQI, which gathered about $29 million in a long-running scheme by promising returns of 87.5 percent a year and huge commissions, sought unsuccessfully to sue the SEC for the astronomical sum of $1.7 trillion. A U.S. federal judge dispatched U.S. marshals to haul key players into court for ignoring court orders, and vast sums of money appear to have gone missing down ratholes in Europe and New Zealand.

    Some of the money also is tied up as a result of criminal allegations — including murder — against James Fayed, the operator of the now-shuttered E-bullion payment processor.

    In its statement of allegations, OSC accused Simply Wealth Financial Group Inc., Naida Allarde, Bernardo Giangrosso, K&S Global Wealth Creative Strategies Inc., Kevin Persaud, Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban of promoting unregistered securities. All of the accused companies and individuals have Ontario addresses, according to OSC.

    “During the Material Time, Simply Wealth, Allarde, Giangrosso, K&S, Persaud, Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban . . . promoted securities in Gold-Quest to Ontario residents,” OSC charged.

    About 94 Ontario residents plowed $1.6 million into GQI “as a result of promotional activities conducted by Allarde, Giangrosso and Simply Wealth,” OSC charged. “These activities included recommending investment in Gold-Quest, providing information regarding the nature of the investment in Gold-Quest, facilitating the process of investing in Gold-Quest, and, in certain cases, facilitating the transfer of funds to Gold-Quest on behalf of investors.”

    K&S and Persaud, meanwhile, caused about nine Ontario investors to plow about $69,000 into the GQI scheme. Among their alleged customers was Buchanan, who also became a promoter and caused his customers to bring $1.8 million more into the scheme, according to OSC.

    Maxine Lobban and Wayne Lobban also became promoters and caused investors to bring “at least $675,000” into the GQI scheme, the OSC alleged.

    The math of the scheme was doomed to fail, but purveyors were lured by titles and promised both spectacular investment earnings and commissions. Promoters were categorized in upline/downline tiers, the OSC alleged.

    “Individuals who introduced an investor to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Administrative Manager’ for the new investor,” OSC alleged. “Administrative Managers would receive an up-front commission of ten percent of that investor’s original investment and then a further four percent per month for a year (for a total commission of 58 percent of the principal invested).

    “The individual who had introduced the Administrative Manager to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Managing Director’ for the new investor and would receive a commission of 1.5 percent per month for a year (for a total of 18 percent of the principal invested),” the OSC continued.

    “Lastly, the individual who introduced the Managing Director to Gold-Quest would receive the title ‘Supervisory Managing Director’ for the new investor and would receive a commission of one percent per month for a year (for a total of 12 percent of the principal invested).

    “In sum, when a new investor sent funds to Gold-Quest, 88 percent of the investor’s funds were earmarked for commissions to be paid to the investor’s Administrative Manager, Managing Director and Supervisory Managing Director over the course of a year,” OSC alleged.

    In November 2010, OSC ordered penalties and disgorgement of $652,000 against Buchanan for his role in the GQI scheme.

    “Buchanan’s conduct warrants a substantial administrative penalty,” OSC said. “He was involved in two investment schemes in which Ontario investors invested approximately US $4.3 million.”

    Although commission staff had recommended an administrative penalty of $150,000 against Buchanan, who is bankrupt, OSC doubled the amount to $300,000, saying Buchanan had shown no remorse and that the smaller penalty would not serve as a deterrent.

  • Canadian Regulators Attack ‘Pay It Forward’ Scheme; Many Autosurfs, Cash-Gifting And MLM Schemes Use Similar Marketing Approach

    Trading off a popular phrase, Kerry John O’Neill’s “pay-it-forward” scheme has landed him in trouble with Canadian securities regulators, wiped him out financially and implicated an associate who helped him sell the scheme.

    O’Neill even named his scheme the “Pay It Forward Program” (PIF), according to the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC), which accused him of collecting $9.6 million from 943 investors by telling them they could expect returns ranging from 100 percent to 300 percent in 90 days.

    “Pay it forward” is a marketing buzzword phrase. The phrase often is associated with autosurf, cash-gifting and MLM schemes that recruit affiliates. The “pay-it-forward” sales approach has emerged as a potential marker of a financial fraud.

    Broke and living in public housing, O’Neill now has become the subject of an investigation by the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC). Like BCSC, ASC is seeking sanctions against O’Neill, who was banned in September 2009 from the securities business in British Columbia.

    BCSC accused O’Neill of selling unregistered securities as investment contracts. Although Pay It Forward was not an autosurf, similar prosecutions have been brought against autosurf operators in the United States.

    “Between November 2005 and December 2006, O’Neill solicited investors to join the PIF Program and enter into investment contracts (the PIF Securities) with him,” BCSC said. “No prospectus was ever filed for the PIF Securities and none of the exemptions under the Securities Act . . . applied to their distribution. O’Neill was not registered under the Act when he distributed the PIF Securities.”

    Banned along with O’Neill by BCSC was Renee Marie Helmig, also known as Nisha Helmig.

    Helmig, of North Vancouver, admitted she “used false information provided by O’Neill to make misrepresentations to investors and potential investors to convince them to invest in Pay it Forward,” according to BCSC.

    O’Neill’s particular brand of “pay-it-forward” involved a scheme by which investors were told that “their funds would be used to buy and sell distressed merchandise,” BCSC said.

    Here is how money invested in the scheme was distributed, according to BCSC:

    • $6.4 million to pay amounts owed to other investors.
    • $1.1 million to purchase merchandise.
    • $213,000 for “other investment opportunities.”
    • $56,000 for O’Neill’s personal expenses.

    The remainder was used for “expenses related to the distressed merchandise business,” BCSC said.

    “[M]ost investors did not earn any return on their investments, but rather lost some or all of their investment capital,” BCSC said. “[T]he payments O’Neill made to investors did not come from profits he made from buying and selling distressed merchandise. Instead, O’Neill paid investors with other investors’ funds.”

    “O’Neill has been unemployed since the PIF Program ended” in April 2007, BCSC said. “He lives in subsidized housing and his only income is a monthly disability benefit.”

  • BULLETIN: Alberta Securities Commission Rules Gold Quest International A Ponzi Scheme AND A Pyramid Scheme; Panel Concludes GQI Was A ‘Sham’

    UPDATED 7:03 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) The Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) has ruled Gold Quest International (GQI) a Ponzi and a Pyramid scheme.

    An ASC panel determined that GQI met the conditions for a Ponzi scheme because it had no viable product and paid earlier investors with money from new investors. It also was a pyramid scheme, ASC ruled, because of a commission structure that rewarded earlier entrants and left later entrants holding the bag.

    “The Gold-Quest Offering was a sham investment,” ASC ruled. “On the evidence before us, we are satisfied that, during the relevant period, Gold-Quest itself did not receive income from any currency trading, have an active currency trading program or indeed any actual currency traders in its employ, or place investors’ money with external foreign currency traders.

    “Rather,” ASC continued, “Gold-Quest depended on the influx of new investors’ money to make its payments to existing investors.”

    In its ruling, ASC cited the SEC’s probe into GQI, and also referenced GQI’s claim that, although it was registered in Panama and operated from Las Vegas, it was immune from U.S. and Canadian law because of supposed ties to a “sovereign” Indian tribe in North Dakota.

    “[W]hen securities regulatory authorities had begun investigating Gold-Quest, Gold-Quest claimed that it was subject only to the jurisdiction of the sovereign Little Shell Nation of the Anishinabe Culture . . . purportedly headquartered in North Dakota, and that it was not subject to the jurisdiction of Canada or the United States,” ASC said.

    “In a 16 March 2008 e-mail to ‘Gold-Quest Members,’ the ‘Board of Directors’ of Gold-Quest asserted (emphasis added):

    Note that while we have or have had offices in Panama and Costa Rica we operate under the legal Authority, venue, and Jurisdiction, of The Little Shell Nation.

    But GQI had no authority to operate outside of either U.S. or Canadian law, investigators said. For its part, the SEC said the tribe had no federal recognition.

    After regulators in Canada and the United States began to probe GQI, the firm blamed its predicament on the governments of both countries, according to ASC’s findings.

    In late 2008, according to ASC’s findings, GQI told members it was under “attack.” (Emphasis added):

    The recent attack on Little Shell Gold-Quest International and its members by the Securities Commissions of Canada and the United States has caused a severe breakdown of trust in these governments [sic] promise to protect the rights of private men and women to conduct business without governmental interference.

    At the same time, GQI told investors they could get their money back if they paid $40 for a debit card, ASC said. (Emphasis added):

    The use of this debit card Pay card through USA Global Trust is the safest way we can devise to return your investments. Let us pray our governments do not interfere any more.

    GQI, which claimed it would pay back members for the debit card and also pay them 10 percent on their existing investment after they purchased the debit card,  also instructed investors through its website FAQ that they could retrieve their lost profits from the SEC, according to ASC’s findings. (Emphasis added):

    Q: What about the 87½% profit I was supposed to make?
    A: All profits up to the May 6th 2008 seizure of Little [sic] Gold-Quest International by the receiver for the SEC will be paid in full. All other profits after that date were assumed by the receiver for the SEC. We will endeavor to work on your behalf concerning that matter in the near future.

    “Investor witness GD said that he applied for such a debit card but did not pay the administrative sign-up fee and received no response to his application,” ASC said.

    Another witness — “SB” — believed that  “none of the investors she brought into the Gold-Quest Offering received a refund of, or a return on, their investments,” ASC said.

    GQI, which promised an 87.5 percent annual return, misled investors, ASC ruled.

    “The statements that investors would receive an 87.5% annual return were misleading and untrue,” ASC ruled. “The evidence does not disclose that Gold-Quest had produced any trading profits which could generate the promised return. Specifically, on the evidence, we are satisfied that, during the relevant period, Gold-Quest itself did not open any foreign currency trading account, receive income from any currency trading, have an active currency trading program or any actual currency traders in its employ, or place investors’ money with external foreign currency traders.

    “Further,” ASC continued, “the evidence is that any foreign currency trading had been done through foreign currency trading accounts opened in the names of [David] Greene and [John] Jenkins, had been minimal and had resulted in heavy losses. The evidence does not disclose that this foreign currency trading was done for the benefit of Gold-Quest or its investors. Thus, there was simply no possibility that Gold-Quest could pay the promised return to its investors.”

    Both Jenkins and Green — also known as “Lord David Green” — were named in complaints in the United States and Canada. Other named GQI figures included Michael McGee and Delroy Atwood.

    “The evidence shows that millions of dollars of Gold-Quest investors’ money, in total, were transferred to Greene’s, Jenkins’ and McGee’s personal and trading accounts,” ASC ruled. “This money was apparently used to pay for their personal expenses, including purchases at stores, hotels, restaurants, golf clubs and an automobile dealership.

    “It seems that a few investors — those who invested in the early days of the Gold-Quest Offering — received all the payments they expected, but that beginning in February 2008 Gold-Quest began to experience difficulties in making payments to its investors,” ASC ruled.

    “Some investors received their monthly commissions for a time until these payments ceased in early 2008,” ASC said. “Many, if not most, investors received nothing back in principal or interest. In sum, Gold-Quest failed to make the payments promised to its investors, other than from other investors’ money.”

    GQI was doubly bogus, meeting the conditions of both a Ponzi scheme and a pyramid scheme. ASC ruled.

    “The Gold-Quest Offering, which extracted more than US$2 million from approximately 412 Alberta investors (approximately US$29 million from approximately 2940 investors in total), was a sham investment scheme,” ASC ruled. “The Gold-Quest Offering was both a classic Ponzi scheme and a classic pyramid scheme which denied Gold-Quest investors the very protections mandated by the fundamental registration and prospectus requirements of the Act.”

    See related story.

  • Receiver In Gold Quest International Ponzi Scheme Case Settles With Charles Capps Ministries For $100,000; Other GQI Money Is Part Of California Homicide Investigation

    breakingnewsAll that glitters was not gold in the seedy world of Gold Quest International (GQI), according to the receiver in the GQI Ponzi scheme case.

    Corrupt money was given to a ministry in the form of a gift, and other corrupt money is part of a homicide investigation in Los Angeles, according to court filings.

    Receiver Larry Cook has informed a federal judge that he has accepted a settlement of $100,000 from Charles Capp Ministries, saying the Oklahoma-based Christian organization unwittingly received fraudulent transfers of “at least” of $201,517 between January 2006 and August 2008 from the Ponzi scheme, according to court filings.

    “No allegations of fraud or securities violations were alleged against Charles Capps Ministries in the complaint filed by the SEC in this action,” Cook said. “Based on the information and belief of the receiver, Charles Capps Ministries was the unwitting recipient of investor funds from Defendant David Greene. Upon learning of the source of the funds it received from Greene, Charles Capps Ministries agreed to return the $100,000 settlement amount.”

    David Greene also is known as “Lord David Greene.” He is one of four named defendants in the SEC case. The others are GQI, John Jenkins and Michael McGee. The SEC filed the action in May 2008, and was hit almost immediately with a bizarre effort to undermine the prosecution.

    A litigant purporting to be the “attorney general” of a purported “sovereign” Indian tribe attempted unsuccessfully to file a lawsuit against the SEC for $1.7 trillion for enforcing securities laws. The GQI entity may have links to an extremist group — The Little Shell Pembina Band of North America — monitored by the Anti Defamation League.

    The ‘Goldfinger’ Murder

    Cook, who performed an international paper chase in the GQI case, further informed the judge that certain GQI assets are tied up in a homicide investigation in California.

    “The owner of E-Bullion was arrested in August 2008 for arranging the murder of his wife, a co-owner of E-Bullion,” Cook said. “The Receiver and the Commission have made numerous inquiries regarding future access to the E-Bullion business records and funds, and we have been advised the U.S. Attorney’s office has not made a decision on when or how these records and funds will be administered.”

    E-bullion co-founder James Fayed, 46, was charged with murder by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office in September 2008. Prosecutors said he paid Jose Luis Moya, 49, a sum of $25,000 to arrange the murder of his wife, Pamela Fayed. The case has been dubbed the “Goldfinger Murder” in California.

    E-bullion was one of the payment processors used by GQI, which the SEC says operated a $28 million Ponzi scheme with Panamanian registration from Las Vegas. GQI purported to be immune from U.S. law because it was part of a “sovereign” Indian tribe in North Dakota.

    More than 2,100 investors from the United States and Canada participated in GQI. Participants perhaps received as much as $19 million in Ponzi payments, according to investigators in the United States and Canada.

    Cook reported that he had recovered only $389,145.57 to date by tracking money all over the world. Much of the money simply disappeared after making its way to New Zealand, he said.

    “Defendant David Greene has testified that he believed that GQI was going to pay investors the returns promised to them via the profits earned by GQI’s investments in Topaz Group Ltd., an entity based in New Zealand,” Cook said. “The Receiver has identified approximately $3.15 million in payments to Topaz Group from the Tri Fund Inc. account, David Greene[‘s] personal account, and John Jenkins[‘] personal account.

    “The Receiver identified and contacted the owner of Topaz Group Ltd., John Davies, in New Zealand,” Cook continued. “Davies advised the Receiver that the funds he received from David Greene were sent to him on behalf of David Greene. Davies stated that Greene always represented that the investment was Greene’s personal investment and it was not until February 2008 that Greene disclosed the funds belonged to an investment group. Davies stated the funds were not for a specific investment, but were used to fund the expenses of individuals working in Europe to complete various banking transactions that were scheduled to close and pay large profits. Davies further stated that none of these transactions were successful.

    “The Receiver, with the Commission’s assistance, has obtained copies of the Topaz Group Ltd. bank account records in New Zealand,” Cook said. “The Receiver has examined and analyzed this account and determined the majority of the funds transferred by Greene to Topaz were immediately transferred from the Topaz Group business account to the account of Wendy Smurthwaite Davies, the wife of John Davies. A small percentage of the funds Greene sent to Topaz were wired to the individuals identified by John Davies as working on the banking transactions in Europe, and the remainder appear to be used for Topaz Group’s miscellaneous expenses.

    “The Receiver and the Commission have participated in conference calls with the New Zealand law enforcement authorities,” Cook said. “The Receiver has provided the New Zealand investigators with information concerning transfers of investor funds from Defendants Greene and Jenkins to Topaz Group Ltd.”

    For additional information see this document from the Alberta Securities Commission.

    See this filing by the SEC.

    Cook also is the receiver in the case against Affiliate Strategies Inc., the parent company of the Noobing autosurf. Noobing pitched itself to individuals with hearing impairments.