A provincial regulator says four B.C. residents conducted what's being called a "deliberate and well-organized" fraud that resulted in more than 800 investors losing over $10 million US.

The B.C. Securities Commission says the three men and one woman lied to investors about how their money would be invested, the returns investors could expect and the risk associated with the investments.

The four people conducted what's being described as a Ponzi scheme through several companies called Manna Trading Corp. Ltd., Manna Humanitarian Foundation, Legacy Capital Inc. and Legacy Trust Inc.

Named for an American swindler who died in 1949, a Ponzi scheme pays returns to separate investors from their own money, or money paid by other investors, rather than from profits from the investments themselves.

The securities commission says the B.C. Ponzi scheme began in 2005 as an investment club. Investors in B.C. and elsewhere deposited about $16 million US before the scheme collapsed in June 2007.

The commission says investors tricked by the scheme received back as little as $3 million US and no more than $5.6 million US.