Regulators in Alberta and Quebec are warning investors about a possible investment scheme from an unregistered company, Inter Reef LTD, also known as Profitable Sunrise.

Both the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) and the Alberta Securities Commission (ASC) have issued warnings about the firm, which purports to be a British company, but is not authorized to carry on business in Alberta or Québec. The ASC says it’s touting a high-yield investment scheme that promises unrealistically high returns, in this case, daily interest of 1.6% to 2.7% through short-term loans to businesses; while disclosing few details on how such returns are generated.

Additionally, the AMF reports that North Carolina’s Department of the Secretary of State recently issued an order warning investors about Profitable Sunrise, and its officer, Roman Novak. It says the department’s investigators say that Profitable Sunrise and Novak promoted five different investment plans through a website that offered unrealistically high returns. Its investigators have also discovered that victims were asked to make wire transfers to financial institutions in Eastern Europe, including the Czech Republic.

The ASC also reports that it received reports from First Calgary Financial that several of its customers have attempted to withdraw significant amounts of funds from their accounts for wire transfers to the Czech Republic.

“Our front-line employees are trained to identify suspicious transactions by members so that we may be able to stop them from becoming the possible victims of an investment scam,” said Debbie Pratt, vice president of retail banking for First Calgary Financial. “In this case, we noticed a trend and a quick call to the ASC allowed us to alert our members.”

“It’s important for investors to know that there is no such thing as a high return, no risk investment,” said Bill Rice, chair and CEO of the ASC. “If you are persuaded to send money overseas, it may be difficult, if not impossible to get it back if something goes wrong.”

The AMF notes that, while there is no proof that Quebeckers invested in the scheme, it “urges great caution in dealing with offers by Profitable Sunrise”, noting that Novak, Inter Reef and Profitable Sunrise are not registered with the AMF, so solicitations from them could contravene AMF laws.

The British Columbia Securities Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission are also warning investors about Inter Reef.