It was responsible for funnelling clients to Mirror Trading International, now in provisional liquidation. From Moneyweb.
The collapse of Mirror Trading International (MTI), now under provisional liquidation, has claimed its first commercial casualty in the form of Finalmente Global, which this week announced that it was closing down due to the demise of MTI, which was placed in provisional liquidation in December after failing to pay out members requesting withdrawals.
Read:
FBI jumps onto MTI investigation (4 Jan 2021)
Liquidators swarm MTI (Dec 23)
MTI CEO goes AWOL, lawyers pull out (Dec 22)
Moneyweb understands an application for the provisional liquidation of Finalmente is being prepared and will be filed in high court within days. Finalmente Global purported to be an internet advertising company that could generate returns of 106% by buying bulk ads and selling them for a profit. It apparently did this by encouraging investors to ‘lend’ bitcoin, much of which was channelled to MTI.
Cyber security and crypto expert Vaughn Victor, who is part of the team representing two Finalmente clients preparing to bring the court application, says it is reckoned that company funnelled between 20 000 and 30 000 clients to MTI, a bitcoin investment scheme offering returns of up to 10% a month.
Like MTI, Finalmente was a multi-level marketing scheme offering referral marketing fees of between 1% to 3% on “downline” customers introduced to the scheme.
One Finalmente customer contacted by Moneyweb says he had no idea that here was any link between MTI and Finalmente, and passed on the following email from CEO Kobus van der Merwe, sent on December 22, 2020, supposedly putting sunlight between the two companies.
“The current state of affairs of Mirror Trading International is that of Mirror Trading International and NOT Finalmente Global. The concerning matters of Mirror Trading International do not affect the daily dealings of Finalmente Global. Finalmente Global merely advertised Mirror Trading International for and on behalf of certain business leaders (who bought and paid for these services). The association between the two companies ends at that. Nothing more.
“Finalmente Global (Pty) Ltd is a South African registered company. Crypto is not regulated in South Africa and is considered an asset. Therefore Finalmente Global is not FSCA registered as all our dealings are in Bitcoin. Should and if the need arises, Finalmente Global will comply with statutory regulatory bodies pertaining to the relevant bodies’ regulations.
“Finalmente Global is NOT Mirror Trading International. There is a significant difference between the platforms and their respective business models.
“There are contingency plans, and security protocols in place should anything cause me, Kobus van der Merwe, CEO of Finalmente Global to become incapacitated for whatever reason. Funds are not stored on our platform due to various security reasons.
“These are two different companies with no other affiliations.”
The Moneyweb reader, who asked not to be named, says his 84-year-old father invested R25 000 into Finalemente in the hope of boosting his pensioner’s income. There are now serious doubts about the recovery of that investment.
“I was under the impression that they bulk buy internet advertising space and sell it at a profit,” says the reader. “Now I think that the ‘advertising’ leg of their business was to pay influencers to create an impression that they can be trusted, knowing that people will do research and most likely believe the review videos they will come across on Youtube (many of them have since been removed, though there are still endorsements of Finalmente here].
“SA seems to be the Nigeria of crypto scams.”
Earlier this week, Finalmente posted the following notice and removed all other information from its website and other social media channels:
Dear Members,
It is with heavy heart that we have to inform you that due to the demise of MTI, we too, have lost a substantial amount of money, not only due to the investment we have/had with them but also the revenue stream of advertising.
As most of you know our business was advertising based, MTI being one of our largest clients in that aspect of our business. Due to the false impression of our association with MTI a large portion of our other clients have also cancelled our mandate.
Due to this we have lost a substantial portion of our income, as a result we are no longer lucrative enough to continue trading and we have had to retrench our staff and suspend all further trade.
This website will be suspended for an indefinite period. We will keep you advised of any further developments.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
With regret,
Management Finalmente Global (Pty) Ltd
In June 2020, Finalmente came to the attention of Behindmlm.com, a website monitoring multi-level marketing schemes around the world.
According to this Youtube video, the company came into existence in 2019 and was formed by three partners involved in online marketing and the online earnings industry. “Due to the many non-legit programs and scams actively operating on the internet it was presenting itself to be an opportunity to assist the community by creating a platform where members’ funds would be used in transparent ways to generate profits,” says the marketing blurb.
Moneyweb was unable to reach Finalmente for comment.
