A Scam Tale of Two Cities

Ray Van Eng (08/26/96)

Toronto, Canada -- An International pyramid scheme that spans Ontario, British Columbia and Europe has apparently bilked about 10,000 investors of more than Cdn$50 million dollars (US$36M). A 35-year old Iranian-Canadian man was charged with the crime.

In a little over a year period from May 1995 to August 1996, investors who were lured with high returns on their money each contributed from Cdn$20 to $2 million in a scam that is known as the "System B". Investors were also required to make purchases at a grocery chain operated by the defendant's associates.

The scam organizers informed investors that their money was being put into international currency and commodity markets but in reality the funds were diverted into the coffers of the defendant.

Regardless of the outcome of this Canadian trial, the defendant would probably feel very lucky now that he is in the hands of the Canadian criminal justice system if he had learned what happened to one of his former countrymen in Iran being convicted of pulling off a similar scam which netted a far smaller sum of about US$4 million.

In a Tehran courtroom, a judge has ordered the execution of an investment scam artist for defrauding 11,000 investors during the eight year war between Iran and Iraq which took place in the 1980s. In sentencing the guilt man, the court refereed to him as a "corrupter on earth" and such the death penalty would be deemed appropriate under Islamic laws.

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