{"id":35713,"date":"2014-12-17T22:41:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-17T14:41:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=35713"},"modified":"2014-12-17T22:41:26","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T14:41:26","slug":"ontario-man-charged-in-alleged-us-70m-scheme-after-arriving-at-pearson-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/17\/ontario-man-charged-in-alleged-us-70m-scheme-after-arriving-at-pearson-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario man charged in alleged US $70M scheme after arriving at Pearson airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

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HUNTSVILLE, Ontario — An Ontario man charged by American authorities four years ago in an alleged US$70 million Ponzi scheme has been arrested after arriving at Toronto’s Pearson International airport.<\/p>\n

Ontario Provincial Police say Nicholas Smirnow, of Lake of Bays, and his wife Dianna were arrested Friday night on outstanding warrants after getting off a plane from thePhilippines.<\/p>\n

Police have charged Nicholas Smirnow with two counts of fraud over $5,000 and one of possession of property obtained by crime in what a U.S. district attorney alleges was a scheme defrauding more than 40,000 people in upwards of 120 countries.<\/p>\n

The Southern District of Illinois attorney charged Smirnow in absentia back in 2010 with 10 counts including mail fraud, wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n

It’s alleged the 56-year-old ran a Ponzi scheme between 2007 and 2009 from Canada and the Philippines using a website called “Pathway to Prosperity” that offered investors high rates of annual return _ up to 17,000 per cent in one example.<\/p>\n

Assistant United States Attorney Bruce Reppert says they’re aware of Smirnow’s arrest but declined comment as extradition requests are handled by a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, which couldn’t be immediately reached.<\/p>\n

“We absolutely are aware of the circumstances” Reppert told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n

There was an attempt in 2010 to have Smirnow extradited from the Philippines but “We never got a hold of him,” Reppert added.<\/p>\n

Provincial police also allege Dianna Smirnow, 44, defrauded the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services of a “substantial amount” of money in 2008 but left the country before she could be arrested. They’ve charged her with social service fraud over $5,000 and making a false statement in writing.<\/p>\n

She is due in court Dec. 22 while Smirnow is scheduled to face his charges on Jan. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HUNTSVILLE, Ontario — An Ontario man charged by American authorities four years ago in an alleged US$70 million Ponzi scheme …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":18112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}