A Toronto man has been charged for allegedly defrauding “new friends” of thousands of dollars by asking them to invest in a company he did not own.
In a news release on Monday, the RCMP in Ontario said the accused told his friends that the investment would make them a lot of money, allegedly providing fake documents to convince them.
The RCMP said the accused pocketed $40,000 in the scheme.
The Ontario Securities Commission alerted the police about its suspicions regarding the scheme, and as a result of the subsequent investigation, police charged 55-year-old Harvinder Singh Boi with fraud of over $5,000.
“Harvinder Singh Bhoi thought he could get away with tricking investors into purchasing shares of a company he had no rights to. His plan backfired and now he is charged with fraud,” the RCMP said in the news release.
Bhoi is scheduled to appear in a Toronto court next week.
The RCMP reminded the public to be vigilant about promises of easy wealth, saying that claims of huge returns and high-pressure tactics are some of the warning signs.
“Working with our partners we thwarted an attempt of thousands of dollars in fraudulent funds,” said Insp. Satish Tarachandra, the officer in charge of the RCMP’s Toronto Integrated Market Enforcement Team.
