Nov 05, 2009 (Star Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX News Network) --

Investors looking to recover their money from a suspect currency investment program have a new, $300 million trail to follow into Canada.

Regulators are quietly pursuing a complaint against a Toronto commodities firm and one of its executives, alleging they helped Minneapolis money manager Trevor Cook facilitate the currency trading program.

The $300 million that passed through the Toronto firm -- KINGZ Capital Management Corp. -- is the largest chunk of money found so far in the still-unfolding case, which drew investors from across the United States and several other countries. They have been unable to withdraw their money from what many were told was a Swiss-based currency trader since at least early July.

The National Futures Association (NFA) complaint says that Cook took over a KINGZ Capital bank account and pumped several hundred million dollars through it. In the process, it says, Cook changed the bank account's password and transferred $75 million to a "purported investor" known to the commodities trader only as "Fased."

The NFA has charged KINGZ Capital Management Corp. and David M.S. Krywenky, vice president and co-founder of the firm, with failing to uphold ethical standards; cheating, fraud or deception; and failing to supervise its employees or agents.

Krywenky's attorney, James Koch of Chicago, says his client was taken advantage of by Cook and is cooperating fully with federal authorities.

Cook's currency investment program is under investigation by a federal grand jury in Minneapolis, as well as by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. Cook's attorney, John Thompson, declined to comment Wednesday, saying he hadn't read the NFA complaint.

A federal lawsuit over the currency investment program grew to 107 plaintiffs and 18 defendants Wednesday with the filing of an amended complaint in Minneapolis.

Estimates for the total amount invested in the program range from several hundred million dollars to more than $4.4 billion.

Making the connection

Attorney Koch said that David Krywenky and his father, Michael Krywenky, had been trying to put together "hypothetical trading portfolios" to demonstrate how well they could perform. He said his clients created a pooled investment fund in May 2008 and shopped it through foreign exchange trading channels.

Koch said a man named Dan Alvarez introduced the Krywenkys to Cook at a meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Cook offered to provide them with start-up funding. Alvarez has since disappeared, Koch said. He and other sources said the Krywenkys also met with Cook at his office in the Van Dusen mansion in Minneapolis in the summer of 2008, apparently to finalize a deal.

In a statement issued Oct. 15, 2008, KINGZ Capital Investments, of Delaware, said it had obtained $334,263,000 for its "Absolute Return Program."

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