Investors burned by Epic Alliance real estate investing scheme should get answers by year end
People who collectively lost millions of dollars when Saskatoon real estate company Epic Alliance shut down should have some answers later this fall.
The firm closed its doors suddenly in January 2022 with more than $200 million unaccounted for, much of it collected from investors — primarily from B.C. and Ontario — who gave unsecured loans of between $50,000 and $500,000 to Epic.
The Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority of Saskatchewan is sorting through the mess.
At a meeting Sept. 18, a spokesperson for the authority said resolution talks are under way with Rochelle LaFlamme and Alisa Thompson — the principals of Epic Alliance — and counsel for investors and the authority.
An update on these talks is expected on Nov. 30. Should there be no settlement, then hearings have been tentatively scheduled for three weeks in April 2024.
LaFlamme and Thompson created Epic Alliance in August 2013 and ran it until Jan. 19, 2022, when they told 121 investors in a video meeting that there was no money left.
A court-appointed investigator looking into the Epic Alliance group of companies said the public may never fully know what happened to the hundreds of millions raised by the failed real estate venture.
"Based on the unaudited books and records of EA Group, total funds raised from Investors amounted to approximately $211.9 million," wrote Peter Chisholm from Ernst and Young in a 58-page report.
"Due to incomplete books and records prior to 2019, the Inspector has been unable to reach conclusions regarding the use of Investor funds for that period of time."
