(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Sheldon Spackman

April 8, 2022

Red Deer man convicted in Ponzi schemes to be sentenced

Jan 11, 2022 | 11:43 AM

Sentencing is scheduled this spring for a Red Deer man accused in an over $10 million fraud and money laundering case dating back to 2016.

Joshua James Tenhove, 49, is scheduled to be sentenced on Apr. 8 in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.

Tenhove was accused of using Ponzi schemes to steal millions of dollars from investors and pleaded guilty in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Sept. 7, 2021.

He was convicted on one count of committing a falsehood by deceit or other fraudulent means, unlawfully defrauding Finning Cat, Alberta Treasury Branch, and the public, of monies of a value exceeding $5,000.

The guilty plea meant that Tenhove’s jury trial previously scheduled for Sept. 7, 2021 did not go ahead, with four other charges against him being dropped.

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Tenhove was originally charged after Mounties conducted a search warrant at a home on C&E Trail north of Red Deer on Dec. 19, 2017.

The investigation leading to Tenhove’s arrest began in April 2016 after RCMP received reports of suspected fraud involving the purchase, sale and rental of mobile light towers by Silvertip Energy Inc.

The police investigation centred on allegations that the owner of Silvertip Energy had sold or rented light towers with the same serial number to multiple investors and had also sold or rented units that were never manufactured.

Victims of the fraud included five individual investors with estimated total losses of approximately $4 million, and four or more corporations in Canada and the United States with estimated collective losses of $6.2 million, for total losses of approximately $10.2 million.