A Toronto man has been arrested and charged with allegations that he defrauded investors of more than $7 million in a foreign currency trading scheme.
Toronto police report that following an investigation, which was carried out along with the Ontario Securities Commission’s new Joint Serious Offences Team (JSOT), Steven Novack, 50, has been charged with five counts of fraud over $5,000 and two counts of forgery.
The allegations have not been proven. He made his first court appearance last week.
Police charge that five victims were defrauded of approximately $7.1 million after they were convinced to invest in a pool of funds to be traded in the foreign-currency exchange market. They say that Novack, presented himself as a foreign-currency trader with a $40-million pool of funds. It says that he never returned investors’ money, despite claiming that he’d made large profits.
The investigation, which began in August following a complaint, is ongoing; and police say they believe that there may be more victims. They also note that the inquiry is now international in scope. Along with the OSC’s JSOT, police note that the investigation was aided by the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC).