Investors in the St Vincent and the Grenadines-based Millennium Bank which is in receivership have lost more than three times what the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had anticipated, according to latest information from the court-appointed receiver.

The SEC had alleged that through the institution and its parent company, United Trust of Switzerland SA, more than 375 investors were duped into buying US$68 million in “bogus high-yield” certificates of deposit (CDs) since July 2004.

But receiver Richard Roper this week said that more than US$246 million was taken since 2006.

“Indeed, investors stand to recover little cash, if any, on their investment,” he said in a report to the court.

Roper indicated that only a small percentage of the missing millions have been found for the over 800 investors.

According to the SEC, the scam led by Americans William Wise and Kristi Hoegel promised investors returns up to 321 percent higher than the national overnight average rates offered on traditional bank-issued CDs.

The SEC has claimed that Millennium Bank solicited new investors for its CD programme through “blatant misrepresentations and glaring omissions in its online solicitations and in advertising campaigns targeting high net-worth individuals”.

For example, it said, the bank claimed to be “the benefactor of Swiss banking…as well as the vast global investment network that United Trust of Switzerland SA has built over the last 75 years”. The US authorities said those assurances were false since neither business actually invested any of the money received from investors.

“Moreover, United Trust of Switzerland SA is not a bank. In reality, investor funds were diverted to the Defendants and used for a variety of illegitimate purposes,” the SEC said when it announced the probe into the bank in March.

The case against Millennium Bank is similar to that filed against Allen Stanford who has been accused of engaging in a US$8 billion CD scheme surrounding his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank (SIB).