Street protests in Beijing and Hong Kong. Chinese investors flying
5,000 miles to show up on doorsteps in Geneva and demand their money
back. It’s the fallout so far from an alleged scam that its victims say
robbed 29,000 Chinese investors of $1.2 billion.
They were promised returns of as much as 10 percent a month from currency trading by API Premiere Swiss Trust AG
and associated companies, according to interviews with six victims and
documents they shared over the past three months. The money disappeared
from their accounts in January, the investors said.
“We wanted to know the truth,” said Chen Biya, 43, an advertising
agency owner in Beijing who flew to Geneva in late March with two dozen
fellow investors to try to recover their missing millions. They sought
redress at API’s locked former offices, the public prosecutor and in
meetings with lawyers, then went to Bern and Zurich to appeal to the Chinese embassy and Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, known as Finma, he said. “But nobody has been able to tell us the entire story.”
Unprecedented billions of yuan flowing from China and into investments around the world are creating opportunities for fraudsters, as well as legitimate money managers
trying to get their hands on the cash. The cross-border nature of the
flows is posing challenges for regulators and crime fighters alike.
More Vulnerable
“Frankly, the law enforcement authorities
tend to be focused only within their own jurisdictions and move deadly
slowly on investigations,” said Steve Vickers of Hong Kong-based risk
consultancy Steve Vickers & Associates, who said the large amounts
of capital seeking offshore havens, some by circumventing China’s
currency controls, make Chinese more vulnerable to cross-border crime.
Geneva’s public prosecutor confirmed it’s investigating API and an
associated company, Alpen Asset Management Trust Sarl -- both described
as “heavily indebted” by Finma, which initiated bankruptcy
proceedings against them last month. In January, Finma issued a public
warning that API and Alpen were wrongly claiming to be licensed and
supervised by the Swiss regulator. It came about 10 days after the
investors said they discovered their accounts had been emptied.
Representatives of API and Alpen couldn’t be contacted, except for
the former API director listed in the Swiss public register, Aleksander
Kaja, who declined to comment. Offices formerly used by API in Geneva
were vacated months ago, while a Hong Kong office was also abandoned,
with a writ for unpaid rent left stuck to the doors.
Swiss Image
“Both companies used their Swiss image to attract
new clients, although they were mainly managed from abroad,” said
Vinzenz Mathys, a spokesman for Bern-based Finma. “This, along with the
losses endured by depositors, has a negative impact on the Swiss
financial market’s good reputation.”
Chinese investors said they thought the company’s claim it was regulated in Switzerland made it secure.
“Switzerland is famous for its financial-services industry,” said Han
Mingyun, a 65-year-old widow in Wuhan who said she was lured by the
promise of a Swiss investment and saw $45,000 in savings disappear.
“They are supposed to be the best and safe.”
Asked last week about the alleged scam and API’s use of Switzerland
to draw investors from China, Finma’s Chief Executive Officer Mark
Branson said: “Where there is a financial center, people will always try
to take advantage.”
Beijing Protests
In Beijing, scores of investors have held four protests, the latest last week outside the Embassy of Switzerland, urging the Swiss government to work with China on the investigation.
On May 20, they protested outside the government petition office in
Dongcheng district, urging that Chinese police set up a unit to
investigate. The Beijing Public Security Bureau and Ministry of Public
Security didn’t respond to faxed requests for comment. Two telephone
calls to the petition office went unanswered.
“We want the police to strengthen their investigation,” said Han, the
widow, who took part in the latest Beijing protest. “People around the
country are still suffering from the scam.”
The investors said they are aware of complaints from places including
Shanghai, Zhejiang, Chengdu, Chongqing, Jiangsu, Hubei and Shenzhen and
they believe their ranks number 29,000 people who lost the equivalent
of $1.2 billion. They were directed to deposit money in bank accounts in
Hong Kong or China, where API representatives told them they would send
the money to Switzerland, they said.
Exceeding Controls
Some of the individual investments totaled more than 1 million yuan ($161,000), according to a report
by China Central Television. China’s capital controls limit the amount
that can be taken out of the country to $50,000 a person per year.
After the money in their online API accounts disappeared, investors
said they received a message from the company saying it had been hacked,
urging patience and time for API to restore balances and compensate
customers. After that, they were unable to contact company
representatives, they said.
Investors in Hong Kong staged a protest outside a police station in
Kowloon demanding stepped-up efforts, according to photos on a website created by API’s investors to share information, which didn’t post the date.
High Court
A lawsuit against a company called API Premiere
Ltd. filed in Hong Kong’s High Court by investor Sun Zhiming said a
representative of API approached him on an instant-messaging service.
Sun then invested HK$147 million ($19 million) for gold and
foreign-currency trading, which disappeared, the suit said. API
Premiere’s director listed in the Hong Kong Companies Registry is Ong Chew Hoon of Singapore.
Visits to listed Singapore and Hong Kong residences for Ong didn’t
locate him, with one address proving to be false. A mobile phone number
for Ong provided by investors isn’t in service. Police spokesmen in
Singapore and Hong Kong wouldn’t comment on whether Ong is the subject
of an investigation.
Hong Kong police are investigating 136 complaints of suspected fraud
from investors who said they invested a total of HK$415 million with
API, according to a police spokeswoman who didn’t give her name due to
policy.
Over the past two years, API’s representatives pitched investments in
Hong Kong and China, hosted an investor event in Singapore -- offering
free flights and five-star accommodation - - and gave incentives for
people to draw in their friends, according to the investors.
Yachts, Ferrari
API’s website cites a history in Switzerland
stretching back 59 years, services including algorithmic trading and
wealth management, and offices in Geneva, Zurich and Hong Kong, with
Shanghai “coming soon.” Its explanation of foreign-exchange trading was
taken from Wikipedia. Its promotional video
shows luxury yachts on Lake Geneva, traders at computer screens and a
Chinese man identifying himself as the vice president of greater China
for API climbing into the passenger seat of a Ferrari so that the
“boss,” whose face isn’t visible, can show him around.
Turning up unannounced in Switzerland in March, the Chinese investor
group “made a desperate whistle-stop tour of the public prosecutor, the
financial regulator and the Chinese embassy in search of a remedy,” said
Franco Foglia, a lawyer in Geneva who was also among those who met with
the investors in their search for help.
“I was convinced they are the victims of a fraud, and I can’t imagine
how hard it must be to find justice for a scam they barely understand
in a country whose language and culture they don’t understand,” said
Foglia. “Whoever these fraudsters are, they obviously misused
Switzerland’s strong reputation in Asia to lure people to invest their
money.”
