Chandigarh, June 27 -- A 62-year-old Punjab-origin man is facing half a dozen charges in connection with a Ponzi-style investment scheme that defrauded elderly victims of $1.4 million in Canada.

Arrested on May 26, Navdeep Boparai, a resident of Brampton, has been charged with two counts each of fraud over $5,000, two counts of possession of property obtained by crime and laundering the proceeds of crime.

According the Fraud Bureau of the Peel Regional Police, the fraud began in 2017, when several victims invested money with the accused and his company BLM Canada Corporation believing him to be a successful mortgage broker.

Investors were told their funds would be used in private mortgages, a condominium development and a legal trust, ...