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Crown charges Thow with 25 counts of fraud

Former clients, creditors allege he owes them $37 million; RCMP peg total at $10 million

Andrew A. Duffy, Victoria Times Colonist
Published: Friday, June 27, 2008

Former Victoria investment adviser Ian Thow has been charged with 25 counts of fraud over $5,000 following a lengthy investigation by the RCMP's Integrated Market Enforcement Team.

Thow is a former Berkshire Investment Group vice-president who fled the country in the summer of 2005 amid claims from creditors and former clients that he bilked them out of more than $37 million. The victims said Thow convinced them to invest in schemes that ranged from shares in a Jamaican bank to loans for Vancouver developers.

"I was going to say it's about time, but at least something is finally happening," said Ron Black, one of Thow's former clients. Black said he lost $700,000.

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Former Victoria investment adviser Ian Thow

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Andrea Racicot is a former client who has claimed a loss $375,000. "For a lot of people it will bring it a little bit closer to closure," she said. "I don't think that anybody has a hope in hell of getting their money back, but I think it will bring closure or at least a start of it for a lot of people."

The RCMP, with help from the Victoria Police Department and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, began investigating Thow in the summer of 2005 following a complaint received from Berkshire Investment Group.

Investors' losses were valued by the RCMP at about $10 million.

"Cases like this take a long time and a lot of work and commitment from many people to reach this stage. For the sake of the victims, I'm pleased that we're moving forward with the court process," said Insp. George Pemberton of the Vancouver IMET.

IMET Acting Sgt. Sammy Wu said Thow has not yet been arrested; when asked if the RCMP know where Thow is, Wu said he could not comment.

"In terms of our knowledge, that falls into the scope of our investigation," he said. "But we have a rough idea."

Wu would not comment when asked if RCMP thought Thow was on the run.

The Times Colonist recently learned Thow, who has been living in Seattle since the summer of 2005, had been in Jamaica attempting to do business with a hotelier. It was unclear yesterday if Thow was still there.

The charges against Thow were prepared June 9 but were not announced until yesterday because the Crown did not want to "compromise police attempts to try to locate and arrest Mr. Thow," said Crown prosecutors' spokesman Stan Lowe.

Lowe said it took almost a year to charge Thow -- the RCMP handed its file to prosecutors last July for charge assessment -- came down to the complexity of the case.

"This was a complex and lengthy investigation, and we at the branch wanted to make sure we had all the available evidence with which to complete a charge assessment," said Lowe.

Thow "will need to appear before a judge to answer for these charges in Vancouver, so the next step is his to return to Vancouver," said Wu. The RCMP are working with prosecutors to determine the best way to bring Thow back to Canada, he said.

That could include the start of extradition proceedings with the U.S. or Jamaica.

When asked if police expect problems, Wu could only say: "I hope it won't take a very long time, it's really hard to say."

Thow faces a maximum penalty of 10 years or 14 years per charge -- the Criminal Code section for fraud over $5,000 was changed to the stiffer penalty during the period the allegations were made against him.

Thow's legal representative, Rod Anderson of Harper Grey in Vancouver, would not comment on the charges, saying he hadn't seen them.

Anderson said he wasn't sure if he would represent Thow in future; he said he assumed his client was still living in Seattle.

Last fall, the B.C. Securities Commission, calling Thow's actions "one of the most callous and audacious frauds this province has seen," fined him $6 million and banned him for life from B.C.'s capital markets.

During its hearing, the commission traced a portion of client losses, finding Thow raised $8.7 million from 26 people. It found that Thow never made investments with the money and instead used it to pay for his lavish lifestyle.

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