Calgary Investor Charged Over $164 Million Alleged Ponzi Scheme
RCMP arrested 49-year-old Craig Michael Thompson, alleging he siphoned more than $164 million from over 1,000 investors through his firm Black Box Management.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Federal Policing Northwest Region’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team charged Craig Michael Thompson, 49, with fraud and money-laundering after alleging he misappropriated over $164 million from more than a thousand investors via his company Black Box Management. Between March 2020 and April 2024, Thompson claimed to run a one-person investment firm that used investor funds for day-trading, providing weekly email updates that police say were copied from online sources.
The investigation uncovered that more than $163 million of the received funds were transferred to other accounts, including Thompson’s own trading account and an investment in a U.S. firm, and linked him to firms such as Intelsense Investment Corp., Invader Management Ltd., and Attebyte Investment Corp. He was arrested on July 31 and will appear before the Alberta Court of Justice in Calgary on Sept. 3. Earlier, the Alberta Securities Commission convicted him of securities fraud and imposed $8.8 million in penalties, though he has not faced a criminal conviction yet. Police urge anyone who may have been defrauded to contact them.
Why it matters
The alleged $164 million fraud impacts thousands of investors and underscores gaps in financial oversight.
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