Embattled Paul Lemmon, managing director of the Bermuda-based Voyager Group, has been hit with a civil case in Vancouver.

The news comes as criminal charges were being laid in the US against the financial services firm director.

Mr. Lemmon, managing director of the Bermuda-based Voyager Group was charged last week, along with two other directors of Bermuda companies - Mark Valentine, the former head of now bankrupt Toronto brokerage Thomson Kernaghan and Andrew Proctor, a director of the Voyager Group of Companies - with several counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and mail fraud.

The charges were laid against the men as part of a two year undercover securities fraud and money laundering investigation involving over $200 million in attempted fraudulent securities sales. In total there were 23 indictments, against 58 individuals, made last week. The investigation was codenamed Operation Bermuda Short.

On Friday, Nano World Projects Corporation launched legal action in Vancouver against numerous defendants including writs of summons against Paul Lemmon and Voyager Securities Ltd., as well as Mr. Valentine's former firm Thomson Kernaghan.

Robert Papalia, Nano chairman and CEO told The Royal Gazette yesterday, from Vancouver, the case was against a group of people who had undertaken to take his company public, including the promise of funding for the venture.

Mr. Papalia said the group of defendants allegedly made public announcements of financing that later proved to be false statements.

Mr. Papalia said Mr. Lemmon was charged specifically with failing to advance $15 million to the plaintiff, pursuant to a financing agreement.

The claim against Thomson Kernaghan and several other defendants was said to be in breach of a voluntary pool agreement and stock manipulation.

Nano World Projects is a subsidiary of an Italian company involved in patents and research into Nano particles, which are about six times bigger than an atom, according to Mr. Papalia.

Mr. Papalia said Nano particles was "new science and technology" and claimed it could be the "biggest industrial revolution yet".

In total, Mr. Papalia claimed to have, by his estimate, been cheated out of $500 million by the defendants, including losing out on "missed opportunities" in what he said was a highly, competitive and potentially lucrative field.

Mr. Papalia said the defendants had "burned out mostly European investors who believed in this project," in late 2000 and early 2001. Mr. Papalia cited Mr. Lemmon and the Voyager Group as a company "operating offshore with criminal intent," but said he knew Bermuda to be, by and large, a reputable jurisdiction.

He added that he saw the defendants as "rogues trying to mingle in a legitimate business jurisdiction".