A man who conducted a years-long Ponzi scheme in both British Columbia and Alberta has been sentenced to six years in prison and must pay $1.6 million in restitution.
Nanaimo RCMP say 41-year-old Michael Chodorowski pleaded guilty to four of eight counts to theft over $5,000 and was sentenced in a Nanaimo court last Friday.
A two-year police investigation uncovered a scheme where Chodorowski would pay returns to investors from their own money or from new investors, rather than from actual profits.
He was arrested in Nanaimo last March after police issued a Canada-wide warrant.
Mounties believe he took about $2.5 million from numerous investors.
The B.C. Securities Commission had also charged him with 30 counts of fraud and breaching the Securities Act.