The UK’s Financial Services Authority reports that it teamed up with two Canadian regulators to help investors recover over £1 million ($1.97 million) from an alleged boiler room operation.

The FSA said that in investigating shares sold by various boiler rooms in two North American based-companies, Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Corp. and Rocky Mountain Gold Mining Inc., it found that UK investors had invested about £1.25 million. The FSA then worked with the BC Securities Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission, to freeze the funds investors had sent over.

This sort of work by the OSC’s new anti-scam unit was detailed in the mid-February 2008 issue of Investment Executive.

The FSA indicates that about 90% of the funds invested have now been returned to investors, adding it is likely that there will be other future payouts.

“This is a rare bit of good news for investors who have been persuaded to hand over money to boiler rooms as usually the money disappears without a trace. Investors are reminded to just hang up the phone when contacted by boiler rooms as in most cases these investments do not have a happy ending,” said Jonathan Phelan, head of department in the FSA’s enforcement division. “Working in partnership with our Canada counterparts on the case helped to ensure that investors were able to get their money back this time.”

Commenting on the case, Michael Watson, director of enforcement for the OSC, added, “With the information initially obtained from the British Columbia Securities Commission and other sources, staff of the Ontario Securities Commission were able to act quickly to preserve the funds sent by investors. After these funds were frozen, the cross-jurisdictional co-operation between the OSC, the BCSC and the FSA was crucial in achieving this result.”

(1 UK pound = $1.97)