RCMP arrested a Chestermere-area man on Sunday and are still looking for a Calgary man who is believed to be in Honduras.
Milowe Allen Brost, 55, is charged with fraud over $5,000 and theft over $5,000. Gary Allen Sorensen, 66, faces the same charges but is missing.
Police said the two men created a business, Syndicated Gold Depository S.A., then formed an agreement to lend money to Merendon Mining Corporation Ltd. with a promise of a high rate of return.
"Investors wished to make investments in [offshore] companies to get high rates of return and some tax advantages," said RCMP Supt. Eric Mattson, who works on the integrated market enforcement team in Calgary.
"Funds were sent offshore but they did not end up with their returns and they did not get what they thought they were going to get."
The pair is accused of bilking 3,000 people in Canada, the U.S. and overseas out of $100 million between 1999 and 2008.
"That’s a minimum," said Mattson. "That's probably very much on the low side of what we believe this is. It's a very large one. It's very significant."
Lured by the promise of returns, investors were then enticed into offshore shell companies marketed by Brost's firms Capital Alternatives Inc. and Institute for Financial Learning Group of Companies Inc., said the RCMP.
The shell companies included:
- Asset Trax Inc.
- Quatro Communications Corp.
- Rapid Express Corporation.
- Strategic Metals Corp.
- Merendon Mining (Nevada) Inc.
Alberta RCMP are asking anyone who was victimized by the alleged scheme to come forward with information.
'It's been a long time coming'
The charges come after an investigation that spanned more than three years. The Albe...