Alyn Richard Waage is a convicted Canadian cheat from Edmonton who duped around 15, 000 investors of $60 Million dollars by using a Ponzi scam. His company Tri-West Investment Club, invited investments online through its website triwestinvest.com. The money was collected on the premise that it would be invested in safe, high-yield instruments. But when the fraud was eventually busted, the money was seen to have been used for buying such luxuries like a private yacht, a helicopter and prime real estate properties.
Investors found it hard to discern the scam behind the company. They were told that their money would be invested in instruments purchased from prime banks of the country. Investing in Bank Promissory Notes, they were told, would fetch them an assured return of 120% without pandering to any risk.
The Edmonton Fraud
Investors from all around the world were attracted to the extra-ordinarily attractive scheme laid out in the company website. It invited them to invest in the program in increments of $1, 000 dollars. The website momentarily held out a dream to all the investors which eventually shattered.
The scam came to light when customs official raided one of the company’s routine private jet flights and came upon stacks of undeclared money. The fraud was laid threadbare soon after.
Later, Waage admitted that he never really invested the money obtained through the company. All he was doing was to pass on money from new investors to old ones as dividends on their investment.
In the news even while in prison
Presently, Waage is serving out a 10 year sentence in a prison in North Carolina. But he caught the attention of the media, when he claimed that the Mexican judiciary operated like a scam. He passed the remark when clearing charges on his ex-employee, Brenda Martin, who is imprisoned in Mexico for allegedly being an accomplice to his scam.
Before he was apprehended by US law enforcement agencies, Waage and others were held briefly by Mexican authorities. He claims half-a-million dollar was demanded of him in order to wind up the case against him. He did not heed the offer. Later he was able to receive a favorable judgment fighting the case with a new lawyer. He claims that Martin was being held as hostage to pursue the half-a-million dollar deal.
Interest about Alyn Richard Waage also perked up when news broke out that a luxury villa he once owned was sold off for $2.2 million. It was said to be lavishly fitted with all the comforts that money can buy.