A handful of British Columbians out of hundreds who watched as their investments were decimated and were saddled with huge tax bills as part of an alleged Ponzi scheme are fighting back in court.

The jilted investors claim they were swindled by "false or misleading" representations by company representatives who were "deceiving" them while enriching themselves – and they want their money back.

"The investment scheme was a fraudulent Ponzi scheme designed to defraud investors of money," claim Cathy and David Leece, who say they are out about $330,000.

"The investment scheme was an illegal scheme."

Two companies, Pacific Financial Corporation and Global Wealth Investment Opportunities, are targeted in the two suits filed by the Leeces and another investor, Judy Davey.

Global Wealth is currently under investigation by the RCMP, following complaints from several clients that hundreds of thousands of dollars they invested in the Burnaby firm have simply disappeared.

Global Wealth's president, Tom Williams, refused an interview with CTV News. In court, he filed a motion to dismiss the suits, saying that they had been filed too late. Another Global Wealth representative named in the lawsuit, Susan Nemeth, filed similar arguments, saying the lawsuit should be dismissed.

To compound investors' problems, many have been reassessed by the Canada Revenue Agency, which says they owe much more in tax after what the tax agency describes as "sham" loan transactions with Surrey-based Pacific Financial Corporation.

In their suit, the Leeces claim that Global Wealth's Nemeth told them they could use their RRSPs to get profitable returns from an investment in European bank loans.

Usually, if someone withdraws their RRSPs, they have to pay tax on the transaction. But the Leeces claim that Pacific Financial Corporation told them they had a way to avoid that problem.

"Global Wealth worked together with another company, referred to alternatively, as iFinance, or PFC, to offer and implement the investment scheme," the Leeces' claim alleges.

The documents claim the scheme involved investors transferring their money from their RRSPs to something called the Olympia Trust Fund. In turn, PFC would loan them an identical amount. Then, the investors would put that loan money into Global Wealth investments.

The lawsuit says Global Wealth did make the payouts at first, but the money stopped coming in September 2009. A company representative said there had been a temporary problem, but the payments would begin soon.

By May 4, 2010, the Leeces had had enough and wanted to get their money back, the lawsuit claims, but Global Wealth didn't return the money.

Then the Leeces received a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency, telling them that they owed $141,000 in income tax after withdrawing money from their RRSPs.

They stopped paying interest on the loans from Pacific Financial Corporation, and PFC sued them to recover those loans as well. It's in response to the PFC suit that Davey and the Leeces are making the counterclaims.

"The Leeces have suffered and continue to suffer loss, damage and expense," the lawsuit claims. "The Leeces are entitled to restitution."

Pacific Financial's president, Mike Duffy, denied in court that the firm's loan scheme is illegal, and said in an interview with CTV News that he has never worked with Global Wealth. He also said the company no longer offers the loans.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Mi-Jung Lee and Jon Woodward

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