BELIZE CITY, Mon. Nov. 23, 2015–The Office of the International Financial Services Commission (IFSC) in Belize has issued a warning that PROFIT RIDERS Inc., which claims, via its website, that it can secure investors a return of as much as 200% a day, is not a legal investment company registered in Belize, Central America, as the company is claiming.
Profit Riders claims that it is providing investment activities under registration number IFSC/60/560/TS/15, with registered office at 84 Albert Street, Belize City – the address of the Prime Minister’s law firm, Barrow and Williams.
“I don’t know anything about it,” the PM’s law partner, Rodwell Williams, SC, told Amandala, when we contacted him about the claim made by Profit Riders.
Williams suggested that the address, which is also the address of Alpha Services, a subsidiary of the law firm which is a licensed international financial services provider, appears to have been arbitrarily used by Profit Riders.
The company’s website has images of three documents, one claiming to be a license issued by the IFSC, another purporting to be a certificate of registration and another claiming to be a certificate in good standing, both dated October 1, 2015.
Oddly, though, the purported IFSC license has a signature purporting to be that of Gian Gandhi – who died in August 2015, nearly two months before the issue date appearing on the false document. Before his passing, Ghandi served as the director general of the IFSC.
Mrs. Neri Matus has been the new director general of the IFSC since July 2015. Matus told Amandala tonight that Belize does not normally prosecute such cases, but informs people not to invest in such schemes. Since the companies work through an online platform, they don’t really know who is behind it, Matus told us.
She said that schemes such as Profit Riders’ scheme would take a genuine license and alter it by just putting their name on the duplicated document. According to Matus, there have been two or three other similar instances since she has joined the IFSC.
A warning notice issued by the IFSC says: “We confirm that ‘Profit Riders Inc.’ is not licensed by the International Financial Services Commission of Belize or any other competent authority in Belize to engage in trading in securities or any type of international financial services.”
The release adds that, “All persons concerned are asked to take note and exercise extreme caution.”
The IFSC’s warning asks any person who is contacted by the representatives of Profit Riders Inc. to contact the IFSC by e-mail at [email protected], giving full particulars of such persons.
The IFSC says that it protects investors by regularly issuing warning notices about suspected fraudulent activities on the internet.
Earlier this month, it has also issued a warning in reference to MFX BROKER INC., which uses the address: Suite 5, Garden City Plaza, Mountain View Boulevard, Belmopan, Belize.
The IFSC notified that the broker “is no longer licensed by the International Financial Services Commission of Belize (IFSC) for international Brokerage/Consultancy/Advisory Services in Trading in Foreign Exchange or to engage in any other international financial Services.”