What's being called one of the biggest Internet-based frauds of all has landed a former Edmonton bar owner under indictment, one of six either indicted, pleading guilty, or still at large, in a scam said to have bilked a reputed 15,000 investors out of about $90 million.
Keith Nordick was indicted last week in the scheme, said to involve the Tri-West Investment Club, which is accused of defrauding investors around the world between 1999 and 2001, using their funds to pay dividends to earlier investors who bought non-existent prime bank notes, according to authorities in the case.
Those involved in the scheme are said to have spent and lived lavishly during those two years, with U.S. authorities having seized millions in real estate in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and Costa Rica, plus a helicopter, yacht, over a dozen vehicles, and millions in bank accounts set up in Latvia, Mexico, and Costa Rica, according to published reports.
Nordick faces 14 counts of fraud and money laundering. He was arrested in Los Angeles May 13 following his expulsion from Puerto Vallarta, where he ran a bar known as the Oasis. He is said to be the third suspect arrested and indicted in the Tri-West scheme, which is believed to have been run from Mexico and Costa Rica.
Nordick has told the Canadian press that he thinks he became a target because he happened to live with the sister of Tri-West scheme's reputed mastermind, Alyn Richard Waage. Waage awaits sentencing following his guilty plea last year to money laundering and fraud charges. Waage’s son, Cary Alyn, pleaded guilty following his arrest in Dallas. And his alleged point man in the scam, Brian Kufeldt, is free on bail and fighting extradition to California following his arrest in early May.
Waage's sister, Lynn Waage Johnston, and Evan T.P. Smith, remain at large in the case, according to published reports.
