beyondtheordinarys

[beyondtheordinarys]

Exposing The 'FSM SCHEME' - FSM SMART, TRADE12, HQBROKER, MTI MARKETS, MX TRADE

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 LtdCompanies 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 Corpwww.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 warningIFSC 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. It looks like this:

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:

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:

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.

PART 2 MTI Markets scam broker was a bit different setup, more Europe oriented, involving directly different people, but ultimately all being connected in this generic FSM Scheme. Allegedly ran via Marshal Islands company MTI Investments Llc (search, closed in 2018). Warnings and reviews: FPA, link with operator names. MTI Markets main domain was registered like this link. 2015 registrant is the Belize company MTI Group Ltd t/a MTI Markets: link, domains screaming with known ‘exo’ and ‘mti’ pretexts. Indicated people were: Mr. Armin Ordodary, (Iranian with Cyprus residency, former Windsor Brokers employee), Mr. Ali Mahmoudi (Iran) and Mr. Mathew Bradley (??). You are encouraged to browse domain big data tools, so you can find them all and see the connections, explore domains etc. We will focus our attention here to Mr. Armin Ordodary now. For a very good reason. Armin Ordodary, an Iranian national, with Cyprus residency, is in the business for a long time. Picture from Windsor Broker celebration link and other publicly available ones:

Benrich Holdings Ltd, Cyprus link

Benrich Trading Ltd, Cyprus link

Bythos Yacht Management OU, Estonia link, link

Siao Ltd, Cyprus (see more domains under this one, incl. Twitter acct link) link

AGFM Ltd, Cyprus link

Nepcore (essentially CRM gateway provider, reg. via A. Ordodary link)

Possibly Orden Capital HK (domain big data, linked to him, typical names like ordencapital, ordenholdings etc) link

BizTech DOO, Serbia link

BizServe DOO, Serbia, formerly known as Upmarkt DOO link

Here is where we get to the FSM Smart scam broker, FB page, LinkedIn page. While Siao, Nepcore, Orden and Bythos were reserved for CRM, PSPs, payment intermediaries, essentially different work within the scam group, Benrich offices, possibly AGFM and certainly BizTech/Serve offices were boiler rooms with agents working primarily on FSM Smart scam, while other 2 brands of the ‘fantastic scam trio’ (Trade12 and HQBroker) were handled via other arms of this vast scheme group (in BPOs located in Ukraine, Albania and Georgia, will be elaborated later on). And since Mr. Armin Ordodary directly holds ownership in both Benrich and both BizTech/Serve, directly or indirectly, this leads to the conclusion that this young man’s role in this scam scheme is for MTIMarkets and FSMSmart scams primarily. In fact, we have verified information that Benrich Holdings Cyprus was or still is a place where agents work, mainly in English and Italian language, while the Serbian subsidiary of Benrich, Upmarkt/Bizserve (allegedly closed due to bad results) was a so-called FTD center, acquiring new clients for FSM Smart scheme.

Serbian boiler room - Upmarkt doo Companies extracts prove Benrich holds stake in Serbian subsidiary and Armin’s ownership of another one, as well as local name change :

Cyprus boiler room – Benrich Holdings Ltd

A place where apparently Retention agents operated. Besides English language, this was or still is a place where most of FSM Smart scams in Italian language happen. Few of the agents operating at one point in that office, between 2018-2019, per LinkedIn reveal that a spinoff facility was probably used for scamming, as well - Topright Trading Limited Cyprus, link:

link retention agent (note previous engagement in exposed boiler Smardis doo)

I have not personally investigated all of the information in this thread. What I can tell you is that someone doesn't want you to see it. Someone went to a great deal of effort to try to get the FPA to remove all the information Scam Reporters posted here.

Another site owner filed a malicious and false DMCA against the FPA after Part 1 of this thread was posted. This site is filled with news items that appear to be borrowed or stolen from major news sites. In the middle of all of the latest major news items taken from news sites, a copy of Post 1 was retroactively inserted.

The complaining site is based on WordPress. WordPress makes backdating a post easy. Years ago, one of ForexGen's many spammers tried to "prove" something at the FPA had existed for more than a short period of time. The scammers behind that backdated a blog post to before the original ForexPeaceArmy.com registration date.

In this case, they first posted a backdated version of Part 1 of this post and DMCAed the FPA, demanding removal of material that was originally published here. The FPA disputed this, and then they followed up with a backdated copy of Part 2.

More details coming very soon.

PART 3

In this part, we will focus our attention to money flow in the FSM part, followed by more close ties between FSM SMART, TRADE12 and HQBROKER, obviously set for Part 4. We actually believe this entire FSM Scheme Thread will have at least parts 4 and 5. Maybe even 6? We told you it would be complicated, so hold on. And stay tuned. A lot more is coming. And a few surprise guests to back us up here with their stories and/or documents.

FSM SMART As we previously stated and proved, all of the 3 brands are part of the same scheme, same, for now unidentified UBOs in the end. Apparently, some dangerous people, as stated already. Ok, noted. We are neither 'impressed' nor frightened. In fact, it should be the other way around, if they have any 'smarts', because of the ongoing investigations. Slow, but getting there...

Now, let's see who are the operators (PSPs, intermediaries and a few more boiler rooms), where does the client money go and who receives it. These information may become crucial for anyone aiming to recover his ''lost'' (stolen) funds.

In the FSM Smart(s) T&C (here:link), bottom of the page 6, FSM Smart declares its operator/owner to be both FSMSmart Ltd (Marshal Islands) and Memphis Investments Sp. z o.o. (Poland).

T&C further point that in case of misunderstanding btw the Company and the Dear Valued Client that was just ripped off by the boiler room staff and FSM's rigged MT4 replenished by Virtual Editor (default losses with FSM usually happen on minors and exotics, like RON/USD or TRY/USD), the first instance would be https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/, followed by the Marshal Islands Court as the final destination.

This Polish legal entity Memphis Investments Sp. z o.o. points to a quite interesting direction. Company details here: link. Authorized person, a lady called Pawluk Patrycja. She holds other nominations in the registrar (link) so she is not that important (a nominee director/holder, so called 'monkey', paid to register a local company, however legally liable, weather she likes it or not). Those registered in the Memphis ownership structure, on the other hand, are important, as they lead to a new direction of the FSM SCHEME environment: Memphis breakdown. As any other similar company used for the same illicit business, first ones registered as owner(s) that committed capital, are quickly removed and an actual person or persons are delegated. They do the actual business. In Memphis Poland case, it was like this:

So, the Suliman's were another intermediary nominees, hence we won't bother with them as well. Mr Rosenbaum is obviously the main guy there. Mr Rosenbaum also holds position in Estonian company Quantum Team OU, link, financial, admin, support activities. This is actually a standard setup for scams, these companies are necessary for either moving the money or registering as a merchant with a PSP or crypto-platform (today its both), to be able to move money deposited by FSM scheme clients to far away destinations. And it's not just reserved for FSMSmart brand, no... Just with a simple google check of Enigma GRC Ltd shows warnings for illegal and fraudulent brands operated by Enigma GRC, hence here and now officially added to FSM Scheme scam list and from direct FSMSmart environment/operators:

- Income Class - True Capital Pro - Profitix

Valuable links of warnings and info: ASIC, NZ.FMA, Consob,...you get the picture. After this relatively short part, it can be more clear why would an offshore FSMSmart require UK arbitration, while at all times they claim to be located in Switzerland (Lucern), although off course they are not. However, Mr Mordechai Moshe Rosenbaum is in the UK. And possibly in the USA/Canada as well. Where actually most of the FSM Scheme client deposits went. But that's the story for the following parts.

PART 4

This part 4 will deal with Trade12, HQBroker and FSMSmart(s) ties more closely. As proved previously, the scams are a part of the same racket. FSMSmart is to some extent covered here. Let's move on to the other 2 ones.

HQBroker scam has many bad reviews and warnings worldwide, link. Google them if you like, here's FCA . Targeted countries mainly Canada, Australia, New Zealand, a bit of UK and maybe some other Asian countries. Operated nominally by Capzone Invest Ltd, Marshal Islands, with fake Hong Kong address on their website.

Capzone Invest Ltd is now defunct/closed, as of May 2020. HQBroker still operates normally.

Capzone's alleged website is also not accessible, www.capzone-invest.com, domain data shows no info. There is (was) apparently a company with the same name in Bulgaria, but official registrar does not show it existed, so possibly a shared space location, under another name:

Exo Capital Markets Ltd, to repeat here again, lists as registrant for many of the scheme scams: Exo on domain big data. Apparently, this Exo Capital Markets ltd is now changed with Trade12 scam to some Turbo Trading Limited

Time does fly...Finally, continuing part 4.

HQBroker brand, equally blatant scam as Trade12 and part of the very same scheme, was meant more for Asia-Pacific regions and the Americas (USA excluded, they were not that stupid). Europeans too but, mainly those regions. Aussies and Canadians were favorite, big money was taken few years ago.

Then 'bad times' hit Trade12/HQBroker scammers. Apparently, Trade12 got greedy and engaged with local people as leads to be scammed. Then in December 2018, an event took place in Ukraine, where the actual boiler rooms were located. Locals started complaining as they were loosing all money and eventually Ukrainian cyber police had to intervene - they raided offices, apartments and arrested many, seized money, IT equipment, drugs, documents and all sort of things a 'normal' boiler room contains.

Ukrainian delegated court was after that overwhelmed with things to process in this case, however it was not important to foreign victims as they could not legally participate, we were explained. Pity.

3 things are interesting regarding this short press release: 2 pieces of information from it and a chain of events triggered by it. First, the news comment section:

So, apparently the scam group walks free, which is not a surprise, as we have reviewed short version of the indictments of the Ukrainian court and it was very confusing, lacks consistency and does not determine who did what and to whom; furthermore, it is restricted only to Ukrainian citizens - victims of a scam, while many foreign victims are not even mentioned. The possible next scam comes in the form of this https://lblv.com/ LBLV Ltd, Seychelles. The broker does have a Seychelles FSA license, check via SFSA (better then nothing) but fails to state where the actual call center is (only registered Seychelles address indicated). This could be the standard business model, where IBs are engaged, which is fine, as long as the IB acts accordingly. Which they usually don't. Many brands were destroyed this way, but also raises the big question - does the broker know what the IB is doing in reality and how does the broker check their daily activities to ensure full compliance with the legal requirements across the globe are met? Finally, the Ukrainian financial authorities have warned the public about LBLV brand, which is in light of these events, very bad: link. But, we cannot conclude this, its just a hear say. Then, at the end of the Finance Magnates news, the reporter concludes with a note: 'After the publication of this article, Igor Pejovic, the alleged Director of HQBroker reached out to Finance Magnates. Pejovic claims that the offices raided by Ukrainian police belonged to an affiliate company, one that HQBroker does not own, which the broker uses to source data and leads. Finance Magnates cannot confirm the veracity of this claim and would add that reviews of HQBroker are overwhelmingly negative and replete with assertions that the broker operates fraudulently.' Although we cannot confirm 100%, the odds are that this gentleman is a Montenegrin citizen, holding a call center in Belgrade, Serbia, called THEIA DOO (Theia Ltd), established in May 2017 and with current address where several other boiler rooms are located already (confirmed in our other threads), for example Parogan DOO (address Boulevard Milutina Milankovica 9, Belgrade, RS). Unpleasant coincidence or how many coincidences till 'chance' is ruled out? Incorporation act, publicly available

Finally, the strange coincidence regarding an event that happened at the exact same time as the boiler room raid in mid December 2018. In the earlier parts of this long and exhausting thread (that will for sure require a summary in the end, to recap and digest the exposed), we pointed out that Mr Armin Ordodary's Serbian branch of Benrich Holdings Cyprus, called Upmarkt Ltd, that handled FSMSmart brand (FTD center) was closed due to quite bad results. However, it ceased operations suddenly and instantaneously, within a day or two, during early December 2018, which strangely coincides with the Ukrainian boiler room bust (first 2 weeks of December 2018). Tipped off by Kyiv 'friends'? Then, one more thing happened: another Armin Ordodary company, Estonian Bythos Yachts Management OÜ had a sudden first cash move on its bank account, in Q4 2018. We will assume it's very late 2018, December...payout, extracting money, moving it, or a lucky shot and a first yacht client of the company? Judge for your selves. For us, there are too many coincidences. Btw, apparently the company gains lots of clients with yachts in 2019 and 2020, perfectly normal to have increased turnover during covid lockdowns, while cruisers, cargos and air companies lay off staff massively, right?

Going forward, there is a FPA member Scam-Rescue, a Canadian guy, that got scammed and posted a review here but also started his own website, that we had the pleasure to see grow over the past few years, from simple and honestly angry post to a developed actions against such scams in general and possible ways through the system to retrieve lost funds (chargeback options). We are not promoting it here but state that this brave young man took a stand, all alone - and made it. Bravo! We'll show you some interesting info re his 'case'. Coming up soon...