{"id":36071,"date":"2014-12-21T17:30:46","date_gmt":"2014-12-21T09:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=36071"},"modified":"2014-12-21T16:53:16","modified_gmt":"2014-12-21T08:53:16","slug":"ontario-man-charged-in-alleged-us70m-scheme-after-arriving-at-pearson-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/12\/21\/ontario-man-charged-in-alleged-us70m-scheme-after-arriving-at-pearson-airport\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario man charged in alleged US$70m scheme after arriving at Pearson airport"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_36072\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-36072\" style=\"width: 640px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/640px-YYZ_Aerial_2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-36072\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/640px-YYZ_Aerial_2.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of Toronto Lester B. Peasrson International Airport. Buffyjossdollhouse \/ Wikimedia Commons.\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/640px-YYZ_Aerial_2.jpg 640w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/640px-YYZ_Aerial_2-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-36072\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aerial view of Toronto Lester B. Peasrson International Airport. Buffyjossdollhouse \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>HUNTSVILLE, Ont.\u2014An Ontario man charged by American authorities four years ago in an alleged US$70 million Ponzi scheme has been arrested after arriving at Toronto\u2019s Pearson International airport.<\/p>\n<p>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 the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>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<p>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<p>It\u2019s alleged the 56-year-old ran a Ponzi scheme between 2007 and 2009 from Canada and the Philippines using a website called \u201cPathway to Prosperity\u201d that offered investors high rates of annual return\u2014up to 17,000 per cent in one example.<\/p>\n<p>Assistant United States Attorney Bruce Reppert says they\u2019re aware of Smirnow\u2019s arrest but declined comment as extradition requests are handled by a branch of the U.S. Department of Justice, which couldn\u2019t be immediately reached.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe absolutely are aware of the circumstances\u201d Reppert told The Canadian Press in an interview Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>There was an attempt in 2010 to have Smirnow extradited from the Philippines but \u201cWe never got a hold of him,\u201d Reppert added.<\/p>\n<p>Provincial police also allege Dianna Smirnow, 44, defrauded the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services of a \u201csubstantial amount\u201d of money in 2008 but left the country before she could be arrested. They\u2019ve charged her with social service fraud over $5,000 and making a false statement in writing.<\/p>\n<p>She is due in court Dec. 22 while Smirnow is scheduled to face his charges on Jan. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HUNTSVILLE, Ont.\u2014An Ontario man charged by American authorities four years ago in an alleged US$70 million Ponzi scheme has been &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":36072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ca","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36071","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=36071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}