The Australian Securities and Investment Commission has sent a “scam alert” about securities fraud to Validus (ASIC).
According to a warning from ASIC on November 18;
Validus’s financial services business seems to be run in a way that makes it likely that Australians will want to invest in it.
But it isn’t allowed to offer financial services in Australia because it doesn’t have the right license. This means that customers won’t be protected if something goes wrong.
In other places, this is the same thing as a securities fraud notice. Last month, New Zealand warned about Validus securities fraud.
Validus is a Dubai-based Ponzi scheme run by Parwiz Daud and Mansour Tawafi, who were also behind the OneCoin scam.
ASIC writes the following about Validus’s business model:
Validus is making promises that can’t be kept. Be very careful with rates of return that are too high.
Validus tells investors to bring in more people to join the scheme. This is one of the most common signs of a pyramid scheme.
ASIC also tells people who have already invested in Validus to “not send any more money,” report Validus to their local financial regulator, and “be careful” of recovery scams.
You don’t need to file a report with ASIC because we already have enough information. ASIC is not able to help you get your money back.
In October 2022, there were just under a million visits to Validus’ website. This was up from 924,000 visits the month before.
33% of the people who visit Validus’s website are from France, 16% are from the United States, 12% are from the Netherlands, and 8% are from Colombia and the United Kingdom.
Validus does not have a license to sell securities in any country where it looks for investors.
