Harold Backer, missing Victoria investment adviser, under investigation for fraud

A former Olympic rower and investment adviser from Victoria who disappeared earlier this month is under investigation for fraud, following an internal investigation by his firm.

Harold Backer, 52, was last seen on Nov. 3 when he told his wife he was going for a bike ride. He never returned home, sparking a police missing person investigation.

Backer was a mutual fund investor with Investia Financial Services since 2005.

On Wednesday the company issued a statement saying, "Investia has terminated Mr. Backer's registration due to fraud investigation."

"Mr. Backer failed to follow our policies and procedures which required him to disclose all outside business activities."

"Some clients have confirmed that they had personally invested with Mr. Backer and wrote cheques directly to 'My Financial Backer Corp.' as far back as 1996. These monies never flowed through Investia," said the letter.

Prior to Investia, Mr. Backer was with five other mutual fund or securities dealers, said the company.

The company said the investigation had determined that all the money invested through accounts registered with Investia was intact.

Letter to investors published

On Thursday morning the Victoria Times Colonist also published a letter that Backer allegedly wrote his clients before he disappeared.

In the letter he appears to apologize for mismanaging their money, calling it a "pyramid scheme" and suggests his life insurance policy will cover their investment losses in his Financial Backer Corp.

Police believe Backer may have boarded the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, Wash. a 90-minute trip away on Nov. 3. A Washington police officer who viewed video from security cameras on that day noted a man fitting Backer's description departing the ferry on a bike.

But despite two missing person investigations by police in Victoria and Washington state, there has been no other trace of Backer.

Backer competed in rowing in the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games.

The Canadian Securities Administrators lists Backer as a seller of mutual funds in British Columbia and Ontario.

The B.C. Securities Commission said it could not provide any information about Backer.