The Belgian financial regulatory body, the Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA), issued earlier this week a warning notice against 12 companies that offer financial or credit services in the country without having an authorization by the relevant authorities.
The services of some of the companies include investment in contracts for difference (CFDs) on options, futures commodities, among others. The so-called boiler rooms that the FSMA warned against are as follows:
- AEG Financial and Pro-Nice Ltd (www.aegfinancial.com)
- Bayside Financial Services and Pro-Nice Ltd (www.baysidefinancialservices.com)
- Belmont Financial Group (www.belmontfinancialgroup.com)
- Capital Precision Belgium
- Clewis Financial and Aoguan HongKong CO., Ltd (www.clewisfinancial.com)
- Condor Capital Management, Advanced Global Securities Corporation (AGS Corporation) (cloned firm), CCMGT Management Consultancy and CME Global Corporation (www.condorcapitalmgt.com; www.advanceglobalcorp.com)
- Cunningham Mutual (www.cunningham-mutual.com)
- Manniworth Co Ltd, Elantra Ltd and Deniver Ltd (www.manniworth.com)
- Prestige Equity and Pro-Nice Ltd (www.prestigeequity.com)
- Shinshiro International and Brilliant Sheen Ltd (www.shinshirointernational.com)
- Tenjin & Associates (www.tenjinassoc.com)
- Voth Nixon Group (www.vnxgroup.com)
These companies target Belgian citizens without having a license to operate in the country, which is in breach of the local regulations. Mainly, they target company managers and directors.
The FSMA refers to the 12 companies as boiler rooms. Boiler room frauds are such that fraudsters contact customers, often by phone, and offer to sell them questionable financial instruments and products. They convince consumers through high-pressure sales tactics to make an initial investment and promise them large fast profits. Over time, they ask investors to make additional deposits. They present themselves as authorized and eligible businesses, but in fact their products are fictitious or worthless. When investors ask for their profit or money back they find they need to make further payments in order to get their money.
The FSMA regularly issues warnings against unauthorized companies. The regulator advises investors not to engage with the companies it has added to the unauthorized companies and not to transfer money to their bank accounts.
Source: FSMA
