Breaking News: Fortress Prime’s scandalous exit as their site goes down

Editor’s note: FinanceFeeds had an advertising and media partnership contract with Fortress Prime. During the period of the contract, the agreement was the subject of defaults. After the defaults, the website of Fortress Prime went offline. This is indeed industry news and therefore was reported accordingly. In our continued quest to work according to the  journalistic code of ethics it is our duty to make this known.

A director who is wanted by the FBI, bailout deals, withholding of client monies, and bad debts; Fortress Prime’s parent company still operational despite mounting evidence against them.

Fortress Prime; the now defunct “prime brokerage” offshoot of Fortress Capital Investments LLC with claimed Royal backing, made headlines late last year with the revelation that one of their most senior management is wanted by the FBI.

As originally reported back in October 2015 and followed up in February 2016, Managing Director, Mr. El Barki, who also goes by the name of Hamed Mokhtar, is a wanted man for his alleged involvement in a mortgage-related scheme that defrauded individuals out of nearly US$2 million.

Proof is in the…

FinanceFeeds has on numerous occasions requested comment from Fortress Prime senior management regarding Mr. El Barki and his past since first breaking the story, however requests were met with silence.

Sources from the UAE and close to the matter, that have asked to remain anonymous and granted due to fears for their personal safety; have confirmed that Mr. El Barki, has and still remains at the helm of Fortress Prime and subsidiaries operating under the umbrella of Fortress Capital Investments LLC.

In February 2016, FinanceFeeds CEO Andrew Saks-McLeod, received written response from Fortress Prime management in relation the FinanceFeeds article exposé, stating;

I’m writing to you regarding the article published recently on financefeeds.net.

I would like to point out that Mr. Hamed is no longer a partner in Fortress Capital Investments, Mr. Hamed has decided to step down few months ago to deal with his issue. [SIC]

Further investigation and research via contact with FinanceFeeds sources revealed this to be a lie and FinanceFeeds was provided with a document to prove Mr. El Barki’s continued involvement in Fortress Capital Investments LLC.

Hordes of cash, write-offs and another day in the news.

Further into our investigation, further aspects regarding this matter have also come to our attention, one of the most important being several claims that Fortress Prime is holding swathes of cash and can easily afford to pay back customers in full.

Moreover, as published on FinanceMagnates late March 2016, it is alleged that FXCM and two other large FCA regulated brokerage houses in Britain had exposure to the Fortress Prime saga and had allegedly used Fortress Prime to clear Forex and CFD orders to the tune of US$6.8m which has been written off.

Attempts by FinanceFeeds to verify this have been unfruitful, however; this and other similar incidents may lead investors affected by the FortressPrime debacle to believe that the company may just end up getting away with it.

Whilst we may not have all the pieces of information regarding to the background events that began these issues, from what has been gathered, it can be understood that Fortress Prime was heavily impacted by events of January 2015 when the Swiss National Bank removed the 1.20 peg on the EURCHF pair. Moreover, albeit a tragic result for many investors, facts are beginning to point to the conclusion that FortressPrime will no longer be providing services.

Website goes offline.

Whilst composing this article, Fortress Prime’s website has also been removed and instead replaced with a landing page which appears to include all the dummy content provided by similar ready made templates. The stated launch time “59 days, 23 hours” from the time of writing this seems highly unlikely.

Fortress Capital Investments LLC is still operational though and as stated on their website www.fortressdubai.com offers:

FCI is a leading private equity investment management company based in the UAE, licensed by Dubai Economic Department. Our clients include high net-worth individuals, leading corporates and wealthy families with an interest in exclusive financial solutions and local and regional investment opportunities.

FinanceFeeds continues to investigate the matter and is in contact with local UAE based journalists and organizations in order to to continue working toward uncovering exactly where the funds are being held and hopefully assist past and existing customers retrieve monies that have been misappropriated.