Beurax securities fraud warning issued in South Africa
Beurax has received a securities fraud warning from South Africa’s Financial Sector Conduct Authority.
As per the FSCA’s 19th February warning;
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) warns the public against doing any financial services business with Beurax Trading which is not authorised to give any financial advice or render any intermediary services in terms of the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services Act, 2002 (FAIS Act).
The entity is … conducting financial services business and requires a South African financial services provider licence from the FSCA, to conduct business with South African citizens.
It is therefore highly likely that they are conducting unregistered business, which is a criminal offence.
This is the equivalent of a securities fraud warning in other jurisdictions.
The FSCA’s goes on to note Beurax pretending to operate from Australia, stating they ‘will confirm this with our Australian counterparts.’
Of importance however is that Beurax still requires a South African licence to operate locally.
Securities fraud aside, the legitimacy of Beurax’s business model is also questioned.
It is the FSCA’s view that Beurax is luring South African citizens to do business with it with promises of unrealistic returns.
The claim on the website of a return of 28% per month is simply not realistic and raises a major concern about the legitimacy of the business.
The FSCA reminds the public of the many recent crypto scams where the operators of the schemes were in effect conducting a Ponzi scheme.
BehindMLM reviewed Beurax on November 4th, 2020. Based on its business model, we concluded Beurax was a Ponzi scheme.
Initially the scammers behind Beurax hired Boris CEO “Brandon Watts” as the face of the company.
A month or so in Watts was replaced by “Susan Pope”, another actor playing Beurax’s CMO.
Beurax marketing material featuring Watts has since been deleted.
Both the actors playing Brandon Watts and Susan Pope have distinct eastern European accents.
As per Alexa’s current estimates, South Africa (11.4%), the US (11%) and Canada (9%) are top sources of traffic to Beurax’s website.
Update 28th February 2021 – Beurax’s Susan Pope has been outed as a Russian actor from Moscow.
Update 2nd March 2021 – Beurax has collapsed.
You know you’re in for a shit ride if the South African authorities speak up against you.
British Columbia Securities Commission also issued a warning: bcsc.bc.ca/enforcement/early-intervention/investment-caution-list/2021/beurax
Thanks for that!
I guess this why when you sign up they ask you to use a VPN to change your location.
I thought they were already shut down. Because I was building a landing page for someone and the link didn’t work.
When I contacted her, she said a lot of people are going to the site and getting a 404 Not Found ngnix.
That’s just “use a VPN” pseudo-compliance. Don’t know why they bother really.
This Ponzi scheme is also gonna end very bad for all who invest in it, just like the MTI Ponzi. People will only lose and not get back any money at the end.
I really don’t know why people fall for these scams and new ones pop up everyday now…
I got a question though, why does your headline call it a fraud when all the FSCA warning says is the do not have a licence to operate in South Africa?
Because offering securities without a license = securities fraud.
Can us “dummies” still hope we will at least get our Ethereum back? Lol.
Trying to stay positive. I gotta until April 2nd. Fingers crossed!
I did invest a fair amount, but not everything I had. I’m definitely not proud of myself.
I do know better. I had a very serious moment of weakness driven by fear and hope as I am sure many other investors were.
It’s sad that we would be preyed on. I suppose this is just a giant lesson to learn.
Your money didn’t disappear when Beurax collapsed. It was stolen the second you handed it over.
Do tell – fear and hope of what?