SURREY (NEWS1130) – Dozens of people who have lost their life savings staged a protest in front of Coast Capital Savings on 72 Ave. in Surrey Saturday afternoon.

Their demonstration is related to an alleged Ponzi scheme, with links to the credit union.

“There are people who had put in a great deal of money and they are in dire straits. There is all levels of suffering going on here. There are about 90 Coast members that are involved in this,” says one protester by the name of Lorne.

The protesters are unhappy with the way the credit union is dealing with the victims of the fraud.

“Coast Savings is not moving very quickly for a resolution. This is money that people have saved all their life to use in their latter years and now they can’t use that money. There’s only so many years you have to rebuild your savings, so that is quickly disappearing,” says Lorne.

The BC Securities Commission has already implicated a notary public for allegedly embezzling $83 million.

According to the commission, Rashida Samji raised the money on the premise investors would earn between 12 and 30 per cent annually.

Many of her clients came from Coast Capital financial advisor Arvin Patel, who referred 90 of the credit union’s investors. He himself had also invested with Samji.

Patel has since been barred from trading securities. He, Samji and Coast Capital are the subject of lawsuits.