“Victim” provides statement regarding fraudulent Mercer FX M&A deal
Earlier this year, Mercer FX disappeared, having orchestrated a clever ‘pump and dump’ scheme. FinanceFeeds investigated it in full at the time. Now, the trainer and portfolio manager who was said to be the new owner, has produced a statement saying that all documentation to this effect was a forgery
Retail FX brokerage Mercer FX disappeared earlier this year, taking with it client funds and becoming completely unreachable by clients and portfolio managers that were left high and dry.
FinanceFeeds reported that the company had taken its website offline, opting for a loading screen that has been coded and installed server side leading customers to believe that it was a slow connection, but actually it was a ruse in order to create a smokescreen whilst the firm’s management effectively ran away.
As an instrumental part of our investigation into the firm’s intention to run for the hills, FinanceFeeds contacted the company’s former CEO Jake Amar at the time, who, when asked why the company’s site is down, stated “I have no idea actually, this is not related to me anymore.”
Mr. Amar explained at the time, and continues to maintain to this day, that he sold the company to an individual who goes by the name of Ashok Ashok (pictured below, real name Matthew Ashok Kumar).
During FinanceFeeds investigation, Mr. Ashok Kumar denied any sale transaction. When FinanceFeeds showed him a document showing the sale of the company to him, he insisted that this was a forgery, and that he has no knowledge of such a transaction.
The entirety of our investigation into the pump and dump scheme orchestrated by Mercer FX can be viewed by clicking here.
Mr. Kumar has today provided FinanceFeeds with a full statement, which reads as follows:
In response to the issue involving my name relating to the alleged fraud and possible lawsuits against Mercer FX, this is to inform everyone involved and the public that the statement saying that the ownership of said company through sale has been transferred to my name is purely an alibi from the side of Mr. Amar and without any legal basis.
There was never a transfer of ownership that transpired from the previous owner to my name. In fact, I was engaged by Mr. Amar only as a training consultant for Mercer FX in the guise of misleading me to obtain Asian clients for Mercer FX.
When my service was requested by Mr. Amar, I was deceived and without any knowledge that the company is not duly registered with the Financial Services Provider Register in New Zealand, with full trust that the company was operating in accordance with the laws of New Zealand.
However my engagement only lasted for one year (2014 until 2015).
I am willing to cooperate with the New Zealand authorities to extend my assistance to help with the resolution of these issues to the best of my personal knowledge.
As this is a statement from Mr. Ashok Kumar rather than a regulatory authority or a legal practitioner, FinanceFeeds recommends approaching this with an open mind, however we do consider it unlikely that any sale transaction took place.
The practice by which the company attracts traders was a dubious one, and following these incoherent statements from Mr. Amar and Mr. Ashok Kumar, FinanceFeeds conducted a more detailed investigation.
According to the New Zealand authorities, one of the practices used by the company was that client monies quickly get “traded” and used up becoming a loss in which they then request more money from the trader with threats of losing the account and larger losses if the trader does not front up.”
The full details of this matter were reported by FinanceFeeds in a full and detailed analysis of the company’s methodology, which is available by clicking here.
Mr. Amar continues to maintain that he has long since left this industry and that he now operates a representative office for an insurance company, however it is clear from our investigations that he is actively involved in new entities, one of which is IntegraFX which is a new retail FX entity, and the other being Walton Global, which is a decoy entity in which Mercer FX clients can login to Walton Global MetaTrader4 and can often see funds, and it shows that they have an active account but have no one to contact, no website and no way of making withdrawals, thus we believe that the latter entity was created in order to prevent clients from thinking that Mercer FX had cut and run, and instead had transferred clients to a new ‘entity’ even though it likely does not exist.
