Investigation by the Financial Markets Authority | Five teenagers suspected of fraud

Five teenagers from the greater Montreal area are suspected of having orchestrated a scheme that has made it possible to extract nearly $200,000 from at least 150 savers over the past year by dangling mirobolant returns.

The youngest member of the group is 16 years old and attends high school, two are 17 years old, while the other two have just turned 18. Two of the suspects are from Montreal. The others are from Beloeil, Saint-Bruno and Saint-Basile-le-Grand.

We cannot name them, because they were all minors at the time of part of the facts covered by the investigation launched in February by the Financial Markets Authority (AMF).

These young people would use means they know well to lure their victims, i.e. social media (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Telegram).

The suspects would target a young, inexperienced clientele with little or no financial knowledge. They would subscribe to the accounts of their potential victims on social networks and would then fuel direct exchanges.

The five alleged fraudsters (one girl and four boys) would make promises of supposedly “guaranteed” returns to investors using a fictitious investment advice company, in this case TNO Bourse or CBN Bourse, as a facade. The sites of these fictitious companies are now inaccessible.

The young people would however still be active and would be very proactive, according to the AMF. This is also why the Quebec stock market policeman has just requested and obtained blocking orders against them.

Young people pose as brokers and offer to place their victims’ money in the “best investments of the moment to bring them the maximum gain in 24 hours”, is explained in the summary of the investigation.

The suspects’ social media posts displayed unrealistic potential guaranteed returns like “$500 = $2000” in the very short term and challenged people with phrases like “Want to invest in the stock market? That’s good, I’m a stock and crypto broker.

Fictitious profiles and defrauded investors

Still according to the evidence, the exchanges on social networks would have given rise to bank transfers, in particular Interac, by the cheated investors.

The investigation reveals that after having agreed, for example, to pay an initial sum of $500, the investor is asked to send additional funds of several hundred dollars. A screenshot of a purported account statement is then provided to the investor showing that the balance is now over $20,000.

The investor is then told that he must pay an additional $4,000 as a service fee in order to recover his capital and his gains. But even after making this additional bank transfer, the investor cannot receive the promised sums and an additional transfer of $2,000 is required to cover other alleged service charges.

The AMF maintains that its investigation reveals that almost all of the sums remitted by the investors no longer appear in the bank accounts of the suspects and would have been concealed or squandered, after they would have been used contrary to the commitments made to investors.

Savers who did business with these people under the age of 18 did not know their real identity, since they would have mainly used fictitious profiles to carry out their scheme.

The suspects allegedly used fake profiles of allegedly female brokers to convince people to invest. On the Internet, the suspects would have interacted with the savers under the fictitious names of Rosalie Dupuis (23 years old), Justine Duffour (21 years old) and Erika Pelletier (20 years old). Their photos displayed on the TNO Bourse and CBN Bourse sites would be those of third parties.

The AMF could go ahead with criminal proceedings in this case, which testifies to a reality in which young people have been immersed for several years: a context that suggests quick gains by using certain tools.

“This case is very worrying because it involves minors at the head of what appears to be a fraudulent scheme. Our investigation is continuing in order to shed light” on this affair, comments the spokesperson for the Autorité des marchés financiers, Sylvain Théberge.