Alyn Waage: The man behind the Tri-West Investment Club Scam
Photo by: PPDIGITAL
Alyn Richard Waage is a convicted Canadian cheat from Edmonton who duped around 15,000 investors of $60 Million dollars by using a Ponzi scam. His company Tri-West Investment Club, invited investments online through its website triwestinvest.com. The money was collected on the premise that it would be invested in safe, high-yield instruments. But when the fraud was eventually busted, the money was seen to have been used for buying such luxuries like a private yacht, a helicopter and prime real estate properties.
Investors found it hard to discern the scam behind the company. They were told that their money would be invested in instruments purchased from prime banks of the country. Investing in Bank Promissory Notes, they were told, would fetch them an assured return of 120% without pandering to any risk.
The Edmonton Fraud
Investors from all around the world were attracted to the extra-ordinarily attractive scheme laid out in the company website. It invited them to invest in the program in increments of $1,000 dollars. The website momentarily held out a dream to all the investors which eventually shattered.
The scam came to light when customs official raided one of the company’s routine private jet flights and came upon stacks of undeclared money. The fraud was laid threadbare soon after.
Later, Waage admitted that he never really invested the money obtained through the company. All he was doing was to pass on money from new investors to old ones as dividends on their investment.
In the news even while in prison
Presently, Waage is serving out a 10 year sentence in a prison in North Carolina. But he caught the attention of the media, when he claimed that the Mexican judiciary operated like a scam. He passed the remark when clearing charges on his ex-employee, Brenda Martin, who is imprisoned in Mexico for allegedly being an accomplice to his scam.
Before he was apprehended by US law enforcement agencies, Waage and others were held briefly by Mexican authorities. He claims half-a-million dollar was demanded of him in order to wind up the case against him. He did not heed the offer. Later he was able to receive a favorable judgment fighting the case with a new lawyer. He claims that Martin was being held as hostage to pursue the half-a-million dollar deal.
Interest about Alyn Richard Waage also perked up when news broke out that a luxury villa he once owned was sold off for $2.2 million. It was said to be lavishly fitted with all the comforts that money can buy.
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April 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Hello. I am investigative reporter with The Edmonton Journal in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I published the first story about Alyn Waage’s scam in 2003. I am looking for any of Mr. Waage’s victims or any lawyer who may be pursuing claims on behalf of clients. Please contact me at
[email protected]
May 12th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Dear Sir,
I knew Alyn back when he just moved to PV. He and his wife were friends of mine. Although I have lost contact with them many years ago I was shocked to hear about the whole scam. I would like to be able to talk to Alyn again and ask him how he ended up in this shape.
May 13th, 2008 at 12:14 am
Dear Rob,
Thank you for dropping by…
Wonderful to see you care for an old friend especially when he appears to have fallen on bad times!
Best Wishes!
June 17th, 2008 at 12:13 am
They seemed like good people back then, I’m sorry to hear about his wife getting mixed up in all of this. She was a nice lady and seemed to go with the flow, no doubt enjoying the fruits of Alyn’s labor, but hardly the type that would be involved in masterminding it. It seems that Alyn came clean with authorities as soon as they arrested him, a trait that I would have expected, Alyn’s a straight shooter, ironically, in spite of being a con man it seems. When I say Alyn was a straight shooter I mean he called a spade a spade and he knew when he gig was up, but I’m sure he had some choice words for the men that arrested him, nobody could match his colorful vocabulary.
If there is any way of contacting Alyn or writing him a letter I would appreciate an address or some way of talking to him.
Regards,
Rob
July 10th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
We lost money… $32,000. Has anyone recovered losses from this scam. We mailed our check at the end and never saw a dime in return.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
@ Rob…
Sorry Rob! Can’t help you with that one…
Best Wishes!
August 26th, 2008 at 12:40 am
My parents were also friends with him and were almost victims of the scam but for some reason he warned my dad that if he couldn’t afford to lose this money then don’t give it to him. Maybe it was because myself and my sister were young at the time or maybe he just respected my dad. Whatever the reason I’m grateful he had an attack of conscience otherwise my family may not be living as comfortably as we do now.
September 26th, 2008 at 2:41 pm
I also lost a lot of money on this. I was contacted back in February by an IRS agent who was putting together all the stuff to get a payment out to people. He said we should get a check this September. I just left him a message to see how that was going.
Did anyone else get a call from him?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am
LarryL, did you receive a payment or a reply from the IRS agent? We haven’t heard anything.
June 10th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
I received a letter about fall of 2009. Authorities said they were sending out 1 last letter to members to make a claim on their investment. They said they had recovered about 15-20% of the total monies involved with the scam and that would be reimbursed soon.
June 27th, 2010 at 6:57 pm
Alyn’s address is:
Alyn Waage
Federal Correctional Institution
PO Box 999
Wake B Unit
Butner NC 27509-0999