The Ontario Securities Commission as continued a temporary order in the matter of an investment scheme known as the Flat Electronic Data Interchange.

The temporary order prohibits the respondents from trading in the subject securities and from providing certain documents to members of the public. The temporary order originally was made on June 5, 2003.

In June the OSC clamped down on investment schemes being marketed under the name of either the Alpha Project or the Flat Electronic Data Interchange.

The OSC issued a temporary cease trade order against Brian Anderson, Leslie Brown, Douglas Brown, David Sloan and FEDI directing them to cease trading in certain investments defined by the order.

The commission said the schemes supposedly involve investment in a desk or a seat in FEDI, which is claimed to be “equivalent to owning a seat on the Chicago Mercantile (Commodity) Exchange or a seat on the New York City Stock Exchange”. Potential investors are asked to sign confidentiality agreements before they are given any information about the purported investment schemes and are then pressured to invest US$125,000 on an urgent basis. Under the schemes, investors’ money is said to be sent and managed offshore.

The OSC said investors in Toronto and surrounding areas, Ottawa, Sarnia, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria, and several jurisdictions in the U.S., including Michigan, may have attended information sessions about these schemes.