Exposing The ‘FSM SCHEME’ – FSM SMART, TRADE12, HQBROKER, MTI MARKETS, MX TRADE et

PART 1

Online trading scam broker called FSM Smart is part of an incredibly large scam group, rarely spoken of or systematically exposed, due to many illegal unconnected brands and quite complicated and fluid network of shells, off-shores, PSPs and BPOs worldwide. Indeed smartly put, the name serves them well. At the time, the Fintelegram did a good job in exposing some parts and initiating the public attention, that was previously restricted to warnings to particular brands and occasional info scattered across many different forums. Apparently, they had problems because of it. However, the full story is yet to be told. We hope to bring more clarity and tie the missing parts. For sure it will not be a complete report, but joint efforts bear fruits, eventually. The full story should be revealed by the Law, not us or others. So far, the representatives of the law have done very little, mainly due to scheme’s multi jurisdictional and transnational nature.

The beneficial owner(s) are well hidden and this vast group obviously has no intention to stop. We shall try to do our best to unmask this ‘giant’ as much as possible. For the purpose of clarity, we shall generically call them ‘’the FSM scheme’’ since its brand FSM Smart is probably the biggest and longest standing one. This thread will be quite long and posted in successive parts, due to the size on info we aim to display on FPA, so you are warned that it will take patience and attention to follow. No shortcuts here or easy solutions.

The named ‘FSM scheme’ is comprised of (up to now known) following scam brands/trading styles:
1. MTI Markets www.mtimarkets.com
2. TradingBanks www.grizzly-ltd.com also t/a www.tradingbanks.com (own trade platform+TradingBanks)
3. MX Trade www.mxtrade.com
4. Trade12 www.trade12.com
5. HQBroker www.hqbroker.com (up to this thread, probably never associated to FSM Smart brand before)
6. FSM Smart www.fsmsmart.com, www.fsmsmarts.com, www.it.fsmsmart.net, www.fsmsmart-ltd.com

We are positive that more brands are involved or were a part of this. This organization is truly like an Octopus. But as any other such group, made the same mistakes when registering various companies and using 3rd parties providers, leaving traces behind. Now days, scammers are much more cautious, in general, as there is more focus on scams, narrowing down their operating boundaries.
First brand operator of MX Trade scam appeared to be a 2014 est.&CySEC regulated/FCA-passport company R Capital Solutions Ltd, FCA, CySEC, CY registrar. Owner was a Romanian citizen residing in Cyprus, Mr. Victor Florin Safta, who had another linked company in the UK, F Capital Solutions Ltd Companies House Reg. CySEC regulated R Capital Solutions claimed they never operated MX Trade by issuing a public statement.

Anyhow, whoever the scam operator was, once compromised, quickly switched to 2014 est.&Belize incorporated Lau Global Services Corp www.lgs-corp.com (now defunct BZ reg.search) operating MX Trade as of April 2015 (per T&C archive) which is a standard next step that all scammers make, when the brand is exposed. Lau Global was a full scam from day one, FB page still online, ASIC warning, CySEC warning IFSC warning, FSMA warning revealing that deposits went to Taris Financial Corp, not present in offshore leaks, Cypriot, Vanuatu, Belize or Marshal Islands registers, but with bank account in Cyprus, meaning it had to be incorporated somewhere to obtain a bank account. Possible best match via google search would be a few companies named Taris from Riga, Latvia, or Sofia, Bulgaria, but it’s just a random speculation with no actual meaning, or any insinuation towards those companies. Whatever it is, it’s obvious that they continued a scam. Lau Global, thanks to ICIJ offshore leaks, can be de-masked fully: Offshoreleaks-LauGlobal. Lau Global was the sole shareholder of 2014 Malta-incorporated Grizzly Ltd. Looks like the entire structure from the start was prepared in 2014 and, once the time came, just relocated, implying a plan/intention, from the start. Grizzly Ltd has one owner, Mr. Shlomo Matan Shalom Avshalom, an Israeli national, with Philippines address, per offshore leaks. This was very indicative to us, as we had the information some time ago to pursue some lawyers and Philippines call centers direction, to get to the bottom of this scheme setup. So we did. Others who looked into this information just continued with having a name from offshore leaks, but no more. Let’s have a look at this Mr Avshalom more, shall we?

In offshore leaks, Shlomo Matan Shalom Avshalom, linked to Philippines and Israel residency addresses, is the director and legal/judicial representative of Malta based Quick Solutions Ltd (2014) and Grizzly Ltd (2015), with his registered address (another company): BSD Trading Service Corp, Office O5M, Berthaphil Compound, Jose Abad Santos Avenue, Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines. Quick Solutions is owned by Belize IBC called High Moon International Inc, while Grizzly Ltd is owned by Belize IBC Lau Global Service Corp. Both Grizzly and Quick solutions have the identical Malta address registered.  And you can verify all via this link: ICIJ offshoreleaks. By the way, Belize IBCs are defunct now (check BZ reg). Grizzly Ltd was the operator of another big scam, TradingBanks, at the time falsely claiming to be incorporated in British Virgin Islands as some bogus St. World Trade Inc, receiving BVI FSC warning. Furthermore, FPA 1-star review, then multiple warnings from FSB, domicile MFSA (for both TradingBanks and MX Trade, warning), FINMA, CONSOB, even Belize IFSC (warning), tradingbanks warnings, give final 2016 verdict – pure scam, operated by the above people and companies, no doubt about it. Grizzly Ltd has a secretary listed, one Mr David Meli link, a lawyer from a famous Michael Kyprianou (MT, CY) law practice office, that was used as nominee registrar intermediary. Mr Meli has a long list of offshore incorporations for their clients (check offshore leaks) which is not forbidden off course, it’s a good business and a sensitive service. Furthermore, Michael Kyprianou & Co Llc is a member of such esteemed groups like IFG (International Fraud Group, link), where one learns the office expanded its subsidiaries from CY to Greece, Malta and Ukraine. No presumptions here, just pointing out the well-known fact that many scam operators choose Paphos, Kiev, and other locations for their business. Any conclusion drawn by the readers here is their free choice solely, we do not even insinuate any connection, but merely state the industry-wide known general facts. Especially when it comes to Paphos, CY…By the way, besides Malta, Mr. Avshalom holds positions in two more companies in Cyprus. In Paphos, Cyprus, to be precise: Tevtach Ltd link (completely new one, May 2020) and A.VV.L Investments Ltd link (fresh, 2019). Sidetrack – with this Tevtach Ltd registered persons, one name search show interesting results- if not a football player or self-proclaimed LinkedIn lawyer with 1 connection, then it is most probably this Elior Vaknin, from Israeli Bynet Group, link, link, link. Just wondering what is a customer care representative from Rad Bynet Group (telecommunication, BPO, telephony, internet, outsourcing/offshoring, IP phones, etc) doing serving as co-director with Mr Avshalom, proven to be involved in illicit and questionable businesses? But that would be his private matter, off course. Finally, maybe it’s not him. This cannot be confirmed now.
But to prove we are not malicious at all, just try to state the facts or obvious indications, here is one nice achievement of Mr. Avshalom, proving he is an interesting individual indeed – a co-inventor of an important and useful patent: IL patent registrar 2018, combined scissors and comb for books.

Back to business. Following the trail of the lawyer and the Philippines address, we land at Pampanga, PH. A well-known place for numerous call-centers, as well as India for example, again industry-wide known facts. Truly a lot of customer care offices for hundreds of different businesses, an army of cheap multilingual workforce. Over the years, we all witnessed even some police raids to scam call centers, over there they even announce it on TV, with full press conference and detained agent’s close-ups on national frequencies. As for our story, the address in offshore leaks revealed Mr. Avshalom’s Pampanga address for BSD Trade Services Corp or rather, BSD Trading Services Corp. BSD Trading/Trade Serv. Corp is actually a Philippines BPO, a call-center, however incorporated in Singapore: link and maybe Hong Kong: HK search:

Your Search: LEFT PARTIAL match with 'BSD' , CR No.: = 1869396CR No.:                1869396
Company Name:          BSD TRADE (HK) LIMITED 
Company Type:          Private Company Limited by Shares
Date of Incorporation: 05-MAR-2013
Active Status:         Live

Why Hong Kong? We will prove a point shortly. Here we will just complete this sentence with public document where a certain Mr. Avshalom from Israel is indicated as the President (wow!) of GWU MKTG CORP. 08F Clark Center Berthaphil III, JAS Ave., CFZP, pls see: PH alien employment permit filling. GWU MKTG Corp website, domain-big-data tool shows registration from Cyprus (?) in 2015 link, while the company website kind of gives it away, doesn’t it?

Going back to already explained ties to BSD Trade Services Corp issue, a closer look at its nonfunctional website via domain-data tools, after checking this job add: call center job advertisement, one can learn quite a lot. Actually, too much… BSD Trade Services Corp domainbigdata check. The company registered a domain indicating a HK incorporation, domain is not privately registered but via the company (!), name and phone of the registrant also indicated, registrant’s name (2015) Mr. Richard Bula. Mr. Bula holds 31 registrations in his name, per same tool search: R-Bula-domain-registrations and the results are shocking, to say the least. Let’s memorize these information permanently here:

TradingBanks, MXTrade, Trade12 … absolute and pure scams, tied directly to specific PH call center. Also, we encourage you to further check listed domains or check recorded Richard Bula’s mail address (bankworld227@gmail.com) , as you will find this as well link – www.easyoption.us (Israeli Spot Option binary options broker, roof of many, many scams since 2011), tied to link, link, also Mr. Bula’s details are falsely tied to non-existing London address Badenerstrasse 549. It is actually shared-virtual Regus office space in Switzerland link, one of many deceiving attempts of scammers to confuse any investigator. Not happening. Going further with the same checks of www.easyoption.us domain, we get this result:

Registrant

from last whois record

Name	Christiana Constantinou	is associated with 19 domains
Organization	Exo Capital Markets Ltd	is associated with 22 domains
Email	bankworld227@gmail.com	is associated with 25 domains
Address	at Ajeltake Road, Ajeltake Island
City	Marshall Islands	map
State	MH
Country	Marshall Islands
Phone	+41.435082948
Private	no

This Christina Constantinou is Cypriot resident (perhaps AGP Law, maybe some other company), Exo Capital Markets Ltd, Marshal Islands was the declared operator of Trade12.com huge scam, HQBroker brand emerges for the first time tied to the scheme group… however you turn this around, it is always the same group and same crew. Also, here we can identify another company, part of this vast scam group, Eyar Financial Corp Limited, Vanuatu, struck-off in 2018.

Here we conclude PART 1 and move to PART 2 shortly.