A real estate investment firm has been found guilty of fraud and permanently banned from the market.
CTV Calgary Consumer Specialist Lea Williams-Doherty first looked into problems at Shire International three years ago after an investor contacted her.
The Shire investor contacted Lea in 2009 with concerns about whether Shire and the head of the company, Jeanette Cleone Couch, were investing her money properly.
Lea contacted Couch who never responded to her questions
Shortly after, the Alberta Securities Commission temporarily ceased trading in Shire and related companies' securities while it investigated.
The commission says Couch raised $20 million from Alberta investors to purchase property in Bearspaw and $1.3 million to buy property in Hawaii.
Both projects failed and investors received little or nothing on their investments.
The ASC says Couch and her companies made misrepresentations to investors while selling them these projects and defrauded the Bearspaw investors.
As a result, the ASC ordered Couch and the companies to pay $750,000 in fines and banned them permanently from the Alberta market.
