A former Regal Capital Planner has been arrested in the United Kingdom for fraud.

The Ontario Provincial Police along with Sudbury Regional, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Peterborough/Lakefield Police Services have charged Pierre Montpellier, a former Sudbury resident, in connection with a multimillion dollar fraud scheme. He is charged with 151 counts of fraud over $5,000 and 151 counts of theft over $5,000.

Montpellier was a licenced mutual fund and limited market dealer, operating a company known as Foreign Capital Corp., in the Sudbury area from 1995 to 1998. During that time over 100 individual investors from all parts of the province invested funds in the company, believing that their monies were being invested overseas in a secure venture, with interest on the investments being paid on a regular basis.

When investors did not receive any payments, they contacted several police agencies in the province to complain. The police agencies pooled their human resources and with coordination by the OPP Anti-Rackets Section, a major investigation was commenced. The charges laid allege that he defrauded the investors of $ 5.7 million by converting these funds to his own use. To date no funds have been recovered.

Montpellier was arrested on September 28 by members of the London Metropolitan Police, after a warrant to arrest was sworn to by investigators in Ontario. He remains in custody pending extradition proceedings to return him to Canada to face these charges.

In January 2000, Regal Capital, Montpellier’s sponsoring dealer, settled with the OSC over allegations that it did not supervise him properly. It agreed to a reprimand, a review of its compliance practices and procedures, a payment of $100,000 to the commission, and $20,000 toward the cost of the investigation.