Quebec’s securities regulator has ordered the assets of a small Montreal investment firm frozen after several investors came forward complaining they had stopped receiving payments and the owner of the firm could not be reached.

On Friday, the Autorité des marchés financiers said it has ordered a stop “to all activity, direct or indirect” of the Earl Jones Corporation in order to probe its assets.

The AMF said based on information it has collected, Jones is suspected of diverting between $30 million and $50 million in investments belonging to about 50 investors.

The regulator believes most of the investors who are affected are residents of Quebec but said some could be from elsewhere in Canada and the United States.

Jones’s business appears to resemble a Ponzi scheme, it said.

IE