Underfire businessman Andre Curtis' company received nearly $2 million from an American investor in the past five weeks as part of an alleged multimillion dollar worldwide fraud.

Montana State Auditor's Office now lists 24 violations against Mr. Curtis — Premier Ewart Brown's controversial political campaigner — for his part in the scam said to have conned people out of huge sums of money.

Mr. Curtis faces fines of up to $5,000 for each violation, a possible total of $120,000, while he has been ordered to repay huge sums of cash people say they been tricked into handing over.

His company Harvest Investment Holdings faces 23 violations, each of which brings a fine of up to $5,000.

An Illinois-based firm wired $960,000 to Harvest Investment Holdings on November 14 this year after being promised a return of 66 percent within 25 days, according to an official document from the auditor.

A further $1 million of the investor's cash was wired to Harvest Investment Holdings on December 15, a week after Mr. Curtis' involvement in the scheme was widely reported.

The investor has received no return on the investments and has not been given a certificate or any form of evidence for its investment.

Thirteen alleged victims from Europe and the United States are now said to have been targeted in the scam run jointly by Mr. Curtis, convicted money launderer and fraudster Daniel Two Feathers, Shawn Swor, Terrence Paulin, Eric Schultz and five companies or trusts connected to them.

Between them the alleged victims have invested close to $4 million with no return.

Mr. Curtis was arrested last week and spent at least one night in custody at Hamilton Police Station, but Bermuda Police Service is still refusing to give any details or even officially confirm or deny he was arrested.

Initially, Montana State Auditor's Office believed the scheme was mainly the work of Mr. Two Feathers and Mr. Swor.

However, investigators stepped up their probe into Mr. Curtis after experiencing his "guarded and hesitant" telephone manner when he called to complain that his account had been frozen.

Violations by Mr. Curtis listed in an amended action by the Montana auditor include:

• making untrue statements to the Illinois investor "where there was no set of circumstances in which the investment could return this type of a rate";

• failing to tell the investor cash would be held in brokerage or bank accounts controlled or owned by Mr. Curtis or Mr. Two Feathers;

• failing to tell the investor cash would be used for the benefit of Mr. Curtis;

• omitting information to the investor about the background of the directors in the scheme;

• knowingly providing substantial assistance to Mr. Two Feathers in his commission of securities fraud and operation and promotion of a Ponzi scheme;

• failing to properly register before engaging in business securities in or from Montana.

Each of the respondents has been ordered to pay restitution to the alleged victims, including ten percent interest. Respondents are entitled to a hearing, which must be held within 45 days.

Mr. Curtis is the branch chairman of the Premier's Warwick South Central Progressive Labour Party constituency. Both Dr. Brown and PLP chairman David Burt have repeatedly refused to comment on how the situation affects Mr. Curtis' position with the PLP, including last night.

Mr. Curtis came under strong criticism in Bermuda over his persistent refusal to reveal what he did with hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars allocated to Harvest Investment Holdings for Government's faith-based tourism initiative in 2007/08.

Events he spent cash on attracted only 238 visitors, and even that figure is said by the Christian community to be inflated.

Evidence of his involvement with Mr. Two Feathers and the alleged scam is spelt out throughout a 47-page Montana State Auditor's Office document.

Mr. Curtis is described as an authorised signatory for banking purposes for DTF Consulting Group Trust, of which Mr. Two Feathers is the managing director.

At the end of September this year, Mr. Two Feathers is said to have written to Mr. Curtis telling him to wire $340,000 of bonds called US Treasury STRIPS into a Swiss bank account.

Another respondent, Montana mortgage broker Mr. Schultz, told Montana Securities Department that he was made aware of the scheme following a meeting with Mr. Two Feathers in Mr. Swor's office.

He said Mr. Two Feathers professed to be a financial guru and introduced him to Mr. Curtis and his company. Soon after, Mr. Schultz invested $200,000 on behalf of six investors in Mr. Curtis' company's investment platform.

Mr. Schultz said Mr. Curtis was investing the money in Treasury STRIPS but that cash is now frozen and the investors have not received any return.

The updated document also says First Bermuda Securities and the Bank of Bermuda were both used in the scheme's dealings.

It states a non-profit organisation in Pennsylvania invested $100,000 after being promised a $14.8 million profit by Mr. Two Feathers in August this year.

That cash was wired to Penson Financial Services, the clearing broker for First Bermuda Securities, with Mr. Two Feathers and Mr. Swor acting as signatories.

It was then transferred to a broker-dealer firm in Washington for a few days before being wired to the Bank of Bermuda with Harvest Investment Holdings listed as the beneficiary.

The Pennsylvania investor received no return or evidence of ownership for the investment.

Respondents in the updated Montana State Auditor's Office action are: Mr. Two Feathers and Mr. Swor; their DTF Consulting Group Trust; DTF Consulting Group; TLT Holdings Corporation of Montana; Mr. Curtis and Harvest Investment Holdings; Mr. Paulin, of Florida, a trustee for DTF Trust; Mr. Schultz and his company Big Sky Equity.

Montana State Auditor's Office is appealing for anyone who has had dealings with Mr. Curtis or Harvest Investment Holdings which may be connected to the case to get in touch on 1-406-444-2040. Montana is three hours behind Bermuda.

Harvest Investment Holdings' website was removed last week after it emerged it was falsely claiming to be licensed by Bermuda Monetary Authority to provide a series of services.

BMA says it cannot say whether it has been investigating Harvest Investment Holdings for confidentiality reasons.