A Bermuda-registered fund linked to Montreal's Triglobal Capital Management Inc. is in liquidation and investors have little hope of anything but a minimal recovery, judging from a report by a Canada-government appointed administrator.

The Bermuda-registered Tricap Futures Fund Ltd.was the smallest of three offshore funds linked to the Montreal company and was reportedly valued at $3 million.

According to the Montreal Gazette, administrator Jean Robillard said no money has been traced from the largest of the funds, Cayman Islands-based Focus Management Inc. The outlook doesn't appear much better for two other funds, Ivest Fund Ltd. and Tricap Futures Fund Ltd. The total invested in the three funds was at least $86 million.

Mr. Robillard wouldn't venture an estimate on how much investors of the various funds will recover, but did say: "My experience is that when you leave North America and go into the islands, you usually have a lot of trouble recovering funds."

In December, the quasi-judicial Bureau de décision et de révision en valeurs mobilières froze the assets of Triglobal and associated companies and imposed a securities trading ban on the companies and several individuals involved in the group.

The Autorité des marchés financiers, Quebec's financial watchdog, has said its investigation found client money had been invested illegally in the offshore funds.

In the report issued last week, Mr. Robillard states he's found no financial statements for Focus, but 136 people have come forward and confirmed they invested $36 million in the fund.

Mr. Robillard, an accountant at Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, said an additional $30 million flowed into Focus from Bahamas-registered Ivest.

"Up to now, nothing has been recovered or even traced by the provisional co-liquidators (of Focus)," Mr. Robillard said in his report. The co-liquidators "are continuing their investigation into transfers made and certain companies involved. Nevertheless, given the size and quantity of transactions ... at this stage, it appears difficult for the co-liquidators to hope for a substantial recovery of funds."

In the case of Ivest, the report states that 101 people had invested about $48 million in the fund as of September 2007, according to a register of investors obtained by the administrator. The report indicates that besides money transferred to Focus (a total of $30 million between 2004 and 2007), Ivest fund lost $16.1 million US last year on risky futures trading.

Those futures bets were a radical departure from the more conservative trading of stocks and options in previous years that produced gains for Ivest of $2.4 million in 2004, $7.3 million in 2005 and a loss of $400,000 in 2006. The liquidators are investigating the 2007 losses, which represented almost all the available money in the fund. Another $1.5 million of Ivest money was loaned to three companies.

Liquidators of Ivest have so far recovered about $800,000 and Mr. Robillard said he expects to end up recovering about $3 million. In Bermuda-registered Tricap, liquidators have recovered $550,000. In Canada, Triglobal creditors will share $862,000 while associated company PNB Management Inc. has $1.65 million left.