Investors concerned after CWS Capital closes, president goes missing

Edmonton investment firm shuts down abruptly Clients of CWS Capital are concerned about their money after the company shut its doors. David Ewasuk has the story.

An Edmonton investment company has closed, its founder appears to be missing, and clients who put their savings into CWS Capital are concerned about their money.

CWS Capital trades in foreign currency to make a profit, a model that appealed to Jordan Kuenzig and his fiance, Lina Ouyang.

The couple, who lives in British Columbia, invested around $100,000.

"It just seemed like a good opportunity," Ouyang told CTV News Edmonton.

"We get married in three months and we were hoping to pull at least half of that and use it for our wedding," Kuenzig said.

Staff alerted the couple the company had suddenly closed and the founder could not be located.

"We received a phone call from our fund partner Beth, and I could tell right away from her voice that something was up," said Kuenzig. "So she continued to explain to us and ended up saying to us that the owner, Mark Alexander, they hadn't had contact with him for two weeks, so it kind of raised questions for them."

Rent for CWS Capital's office space in downtown Edmonton stopped being paid earlier this month.

The company's website says it's undergoing maintenance and the social media accounts posted on April 18 that CWS Capital had ceased operations.

Former CWS Capital vice president Travis Gibson is also an investor and told CTV News he doesn't know where Alexander is.

"That's what everyone is trying to figure out."

Gibson told CTV News that Alexander hired him early in the pandemic and that the president told him CWS had been operating since 2013. Gibson also claimed Alexander ran the company from the Dominican Republic for most of the past two years.

The former VP doesn't know how much money was invested in the company.

Kuenzig says people he knows invested much more money than him and his fiance.

"Our investment of a hundred thousand is massive to us, but we have friends in this that invested in this for a million dollars a piece."

The couple and former VP said they contacted the Alberta Securities Commission and law enforcement.

The ASC would not reveal to CTV News whether or not an investigation is underway.

The Edmonton Police Service said it is investigating a complaint reported to them about the company.