A former Saskatchewan resident, accused in an Internet investment scam that bilked 15,000 investors of nearly $60 million US, was sentenced Friday to more than five years in prison.

Two Edmonton men have also pleaded guilty in the Tri-West Investment Club scheme, which cheated people around the world, including hundreds of people in Manitoba.

Keith Nordick, 42 – who had lived in Englefeld, Sask. and Edmonton – pleaded guilty in November to mail and wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money.

The investigation of the scam involved authorities from the United States, Canada and Costa Rica, who described it as one of the largest online investment scams in the United States.

Nordick and two other men admitted running a Ponzi scheme, in which early investors were paid with money from investors who joined later, from 1999 to September 2001.

They solicited investments using a web site that promised 120 per cent annualized returns in a "bank debenture trading program."

U.S. federal prosecutors said they used investors' money to buy millions of dollars worth of property in Costa Rica, Mexico and Latvia, as well as a yacht, helicopter and several cars.

Six people were charged, including:

  • Nordick, who had been operating a beach-front bar in the Mexican resort Puerto Vallarta for several years, but before that lived in Edmonton.
  • Alyn Waage, of Edmonton, called Tri-West's "kingpin" by prosecutors. He also pleaded guilty and will be sentenced March 11.
  • Waage's son, Cary, who used to live in Edmonton, pleaded guilty. He co-operated with authorities to get a reduced sentence in July of more than four years in prison.
  • Michael Webb, the Internet web designer, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced last week to just under five years in prison.
  • Two other Canadians who allegedly kept the books are still fugitives.