The alleged “mastermind” of an offshore shell scheme is believed to have siphoned around $7 million through his wife’s Vancouver tennis coach, allege U.S. authorities.

The money was transferred from a Swiss trading platform named Wintercap SA to a Marshall Islands-based company called Cortona Equity Inc. between August 2017 and July 2018.

But the money didn’t belong to the tennis coach, say investigators at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“(Fred) Sharp had installed his wife’s tennis coach as the purported beneficial owner of Cortona,” states the commission’s proposed amended complaint on Feb. 3.

Sharp and seven other Canadians face civil charges related to an offshore shell scheme that facilitated over one billion dollars of gross illegal trading proceeds via hundreds of American penny stock companies. Sharp, a West Vancouver resident, is the alleged mastermind, say authorities.

The SEC was allowed to amend its complaint by U.S. District Judge William G. Young of the District of Massachusetts in January after several of the accused objected to the charges, citing not enough evidence against them in the initial complaint.

A Jan. 20 hearing was held to iron out details of motions to dismiss from alleged co-conspirators Jackson Friesen, Graham Taylor, Paul Sexton, Zhiying Yvonne Gasarch, Courtney Kelln and Mike Veldhuis. All of the accused are believed to be residing in the Metro Vancouver region. They are all presumed innocent until a court rules on the allegations.

Two co-respondents facing criminal charges are not submitting motions, including ex-Vancouver lawyer Sharp and former B.C. cannabis company director Avtar Dhillon.

For his part, Sharp has not responded to the commission, which filed for a default…