MONTREAL, July 15 (UPI) -- Canadian officials in Montreal were investigating reports Wednesday a businessman suspected in a $50 million Ponzi scheme flew to London last week.
Earl Jones vanished as police began receiving calls from his clients that their monthly checks either hadn't shown up, or bounced, The Gazette reported.
Jones has been handling the financial affairs and estates of scores of people for more than 25 years, although he isn't a certified financial planner, the Globe and Mail said.
Lead investigator Gilles Robillard said key accounting files, including the general ledger for Jones' accounting operation, are missing from his office.
Numerous clients, the majority of them elderly, told police it appears their life savings are gone, and investigators say as much as $50 million has vanished.
Tuesday, a British Airways flight attendant contacted police to say he had seen Jones on a Montreal flight to London last Thursday night. He said the man traveled in business class and carried only a briefcase and a laptop.
Ponzi schemes are named for Charles Ponzi, who was arrested in the early 1900s in the United States. The scheme involves growing a number of investors and using the newest clients' money to pay the oldest investors.
