South Africa Forex Scam – Investors lose millions

6 Comments

More than 700 people stand to lose more than R200 million in investments after an investigation into the southern Cape-based Minne Trading investment scheme found it to be operating illegally.

The Registrar of Banks appointed auditing firm Deloitte to determine whether the company and two individuals, Graeme and Caroline Minne, were conducting the business of a bank, in contravention of the Banks Act. Investigators found that the business was receiving deposits from people and was thus operating as a bank. At the end of November, the business was told to stop taking investments and to repay all its investors.

The organisation had been promising investors returns of between 48 and 65 percent. The investigators found that while some investors were receiving these payments, “they never realised payments and were operating at a loss”.

“In practice, this means that Investor B’s investment was used to pay the return on Investor A’s investment.”

The company was apparently involved in training, and in the trading of foreign exchange. The inspection revealed that the company “did not nearly generate enough profits on the forex market to pay the returns promised to investors”.

Read the rest here.

TAGS: , , , , , , , , , ,
More information on this subject is found in the latest Forex Magnates Quarterly Industry Report

6 Comments on this post

Trackbacks

  1. James said:

    Greed and stupidity among humans WILL NEVER EVER change ….. so scams will happen again and again ….. memory is short … greed everlasting …. suckers are born everyday …. and scam will flourish with different and sometimes unbelievably the same people again!!! Nothing …. no rules or laws will be able to stop that !!! THe urge to be “one up” over others will drive sane and educated to do insanely things even if they need to go underground for it ! At the end of the day humans fall due to their own vanity and EGO !

    January 4th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
  2. Michael Greenberg said:

    Couldn’t have said this better.

    January 4th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
  3. Paul said:

    I happen to know this person, I was taught by him how to trade, and I’m actually doing well. He is able to generate allot of money. But who knows the truth. Greed is the pillow of satan.

    But, threw what this man has been doing, allot of people were surviving on his payments for years. I believe if given an honest chance, he will be able to pay back everybody’s money, and if he was not stopped many people would still be fine today.

    He was stopped November 09, Dec 09 almost nothing happened but for The firm Deloitte phoning people and trying to get them to fill in the “investment forms”. And also promising them to give back all there money if they fill in the form. Why did they not let him go on till Jan 2010 and then stop everything. Then the people that borrowed him the money at least had a good christmas.

    Anyway, if something must fall apart quickly, and you want quick response from the people involved, then that was the way to go.
    I’m not saying he is innocent. But we are talking about people’s life savings here, and if he is not allowed to go on trading and allowed even if govent by the auditing firm, then where will these poeple get any money from?

    January 21st, 2010 at 11:51 am
  4. MERRICK BRENT said:

    This man was paying everyone regularly for many years.The reserve bank claimed that he was trading as a bank and was told to repay all investors immediately.No bank or insurance company/investment company will be able to pay all investors their money back within a few days of being notified.This has been seen around the world when banks collapse.Money that has been invested has to run the full investment period to mature or gain interest.
    If the Reserve Bank had left him to carry on trading all investors would still be getting their monthly / annual payments.
    The fault here lies with the Reserve Bank and Deloittes

    January 25th, 2010 at 8:18 am
  5. Friend said:

    I agree that his man has been paying the investors but in actual fact he paid with money that he conned from old people, etc. What him and Erika did wrong was that they spent the investors (YOUR MONEY) on all the extreme luxuries that they had. They lived a very high life. This is just wrong..does not matter how you look at it. I just hope they learned from this experience and treat money with respect in future.

    February 23rd, 2010 at 4:19 am
  6. Ellie Maher said:

    My folks (pensioners)have invested money with him,and now they have nothing,all their debit orders have bounced,they dont have medical aid anymore,cant pay their house rent,telephone account or other bills.I agree that they could’ve let him carry on,or at least have warned him.I know some of the other investors in Mossel Bay and they are all in the same boat.Some want to commit suicide and peoples lifes have fallen apart. They were all dependant on their monthly repayments from Minne. They have stopped him,yes,but they have also ruined peoples lifes in the process.Now all they can say is that the case could take up to two years,or longer.I know that wealthy people have also invested with him and they have also lost their money,but they can at least carry on and are able to still work.They should look at paying the pensioners and people with children back some of their money in the interim,after all these poor people were not in the game to enrich themselves,only to earn a income.In a county like ours life is tough enough with all the fraud within Government etc.maybe they should focus on the REAL issues… C’mon,people have a heart!

    March 3rd, 2010 at 4:22 am
Mirror Trader Leverate

Note: Copyright © 2011 Forex Magnates. All rights reserved.

All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Forex Magnates. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. All information on this page is subject to change. The use of this website constitutes acceptance of our user agreement. Please read our privacy policy and legal disclaimer. Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you.Before deciding to trade foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss of some or all of your initial investment and therefore you should not invest money that you cannot afford to lose. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts.

Opinions expressed at Forex Magnates are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Forex Magnates or its management. Forex Magnates has not verified the accuracy or basis-in-fact of any claim or statement made by any independent author: errors and Omissions may occur. Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices or other information contained on this website, by Forex Magnates, its employees, partners or contributors, is provided as general market commentary and does not constitute investment advice. Forex Magnates will not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to, any loss of profit, which may arise directly or indirectly from use of or reliance on such information.

©2011 "Forex Magnates Inc. - Home of the Forex Elite" All Rights Reserved.