Investigative journalist David Marchant appears to be hot on the trail of Belvedere Management. It took just one day for regulators to act after David exposed some very distressing facts about the financial services giant. On March 18th, just 24 hours after Marchant's Offshore Alert story appeared, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) of the government of Mauritius published its own warning.
Mauritius' FSC says, "[We wish] to apprise the members of the public / investors that Lancelot Global PCC and The Four Elements PCC (the "Companies") are under the administration of Belvedere Management Limited. The Companies are already subject to enforcement actions by the FSC Mauritius. The FSC Mauritius gave directions and prohibited the Companies from accepting new business / investor."
The commission also said that an inspection was conducted earlier this year to "protect consumers."
Telling a fund that it can't accept new money or sell to new investors is a serious red flag. We don't know the details yet but we do know there have been plenty of other red flags. Marchant reports that London police arrested 13 employees of another Belvedere entity earlier this year and that regulators in Guernsey are investigating fraud allegations against yet another Belvedere Management related entity.
Perhaps most disturbing of all, it appears that Belvedere is ignoring the Mauritius FSC's freeze on new investors. Offshore Alert reports that an undercover journalist called one of the funds and was sent a new investor application. Worse, a company representative offered to help the caller circumvent the restrictions.
How did Belvedere Management react to Mauritius' investigation? It appears that at least some of their funds simply packed their bags and moved to the Cayman Islands. Instead of disclosing that they were forbidden to take on new investors, one of the sub funds, Kijani Commodity Fund, bragged about the move and said it was moving because of a better regulatory environment.
If nothing else, Belvedere Management has chutzpah. Unfortunately, there is a real possibility that clients are getting hurt.
Prior to posting this blog, we visited Belvedere Management's website. Perhaps the company has an explanation. Unfortunately, the most recent entry in the "News" section was over two years old so it wasn't surprising that the company neither revealed nor addressed its regulatory problems.
Thus far there are many, many red flags. As my grandfather once taught me, "where there is smoke there is usually fire." With a reported $16 billion under management or advisement, this could be one of the largest fires in history.
What's our angle? We help investors who were defrauded of their hard earned money or life savings. Our interest is in the third party companies that either sold these investments or helped perpetrate the fraud... stockbrokers, wealth managers, investment advisers, auditors, custodians and banks. If there is a U.S. connection with Belvedere Management, we are interested.
For more information, contact attorney Tim Granitz at [hidden email] or by telephone at 800.669.7782 (direct). All inquiries protected by the attorney - client privilege and kept in strict confidence.
MahanyLaw - America's Fraud Recovery Lawyers
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