Two Toronto men have been charged with fraud in a $7-million investment scheme, provincial police say.

Howard Rash, 62, and Alexander Funt, 78, have both been charged with fraud over $5,000, the economic crime unit of the Ontario Provincial Police anti-rackets branch said Wednesday.

The charges follow a 34-month investigation.

Police said a business solicited 97 Ontario residents as well as a number of other people from across Canada to invest varying amounts totalling close to $7 million over a three-year period.

"The investments were held out to be for the development of an automated trading system that promised unusually high rates of return," the OPP said in a release. It added the investigation "revealed that the funds solicited were not used in the manner promised, thereby defrauding the investors of their money."

Both men are to appear in court in Toronto on Feb. 18.