A 49-year-old man was arrested and charged with criminal offences relating to fraud and money laundering.
The RCMP Federal Policing Northwest Region’s Integrated Market Enforcement Team (IMET) in Calgary said between March 2020 and April 2024, the accused is alleged to have misappropriated more than $164 million in investor funds from over 1,000 victims via his company, Black Box Management Corp. in a large-scale Ponzi scheme.
While representing himself as a one-man investment firm, the accused received funds from Black Box investors on the understanding that he would use the money for day trading.
Investors would then receive weekly email updates from the accused about the performance and growth of their respective accounts.
Following what they called a complex and thorough investigation, investigators determined the information presented in these email updates were plagiarized from various online sources.
Investigators also found that, out of the $164 million inbound funds, the accused allegedly transferred more than $163 million to other external accounts – which included his own personal trading account and an investment in a company based in the United States.
The investigation also revealed that the accused was linked to several other invoice factoring and investment-related businesses: Intelsense Investment Corp., Invader Management Ltd., and Attebyte Investment Corp.
On July 31, Craig Michael Thompson, a resident of Calgary, was arrested and charged with:
- Fraud contrary to section 380(1)(a) of the Criminal Code (x2); and,
- Laundering proceeds of crime contrary to section 462.31(1)(a) of the Criminal Code.
Thompson is scheduled to appear at the Alberta Court of Justice in Calgary on Sep. 3, 2026.
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