#trade12

PART 1

Online trading scam broker called FSM Smart is part of an incredibly large scam group, rarely spoken of or systematically exposed, due to many illegal unconnected brands and quite complicated and fluid network of shells, off-shores, PSPs and BPOs worldwide. Indeed smartly put, the name serves them well. At the time, the Fintelegram did a good job in exposing some parts and initiating the public attention, that was previously restricted to warnings to particular brands and occasional info scattered across many different forums. Apparently, they had problems because of it. However, the full story is yet to be told. We hope to bring more clarity and tie the missing parts. For sure it will not be a complete report, but joint efforts bear fruits, eventually. The full story should be revealed by the Law, not us or others. So far, the representatives of the law have done very little, mainly due to scheme’s multi jurisdictional and transnational nature.

The beneficial owner(s) are well hidden and this vast group obviously has no intention to stop. We shall try to do our best to unmask this ‘giant’ as much as possible. For the purpose of clarity, we shall generically call them ‘’the FSM scheme’’ since its brand FSM Smart is probably the biggest and longest standing one. This thread will be quite long and posted in successive parts, due to the size on info we aim to display on FPA, so you are warned that it will take patience and attention to follow. No shortcuts here or easy solutions.

The named ‘FSM scheme’ is comprised of (up to now known) following scam brands/trading styles: 1. MTI Markets www.mtimarkets.com 2. TradingBanks www.grizzly-ltd.com also t/a www.tradingbanks.com (own trade platform+TradingBanks) 3. MX Trade www.mxtrade.com 4. Trade12 www.trade12.com 5. HQBroker www.hqbroker.com (up to this thread, probably never associated to FSM Smart brand before) 6. FSM Smart www.fsmsmart.com, www.fsmsmarts.com, www.it.fsmsmart.net, www.fsmsmart-ltd.com

We are positive that more brands are involved or were a part of this. This organization is truly like an Octopus. But as any other such group, made the same mistakes when registering various companies and using 3rd parties providers, leaving traces behind. Now days, scammers are much more cautious, in general, as there is more focus on scams, narrowing down their operating boundaries. First brand operator of MX Trade scam appeared to be a 2014 est.&CySEC regulated/FCA-passport company R Capital Solutions Ltd, FCA, CySEC, CY registrar. Owner was a Romanian citizen residing in Cyprus, Mr. Victor Florin Safta, who had another linked company in the UK, F Capital Solutions LtdCompanies House Reg. CySEC regulated R Capital Solutions claimed they never operated MX Trade by issuing a public statement:

Anyhow, whoever the scam operator was, once compromised, quickly switched to 2014 est.&Belize incorporated Lau Global Services Corpwww.lgs-corp.com (now defunct BZ reg.search) operating MX Trade as of April 2015 (per T&C archive) which is a standard next step that all scammers make, when the brand is exposed. Lau Global was a full scam from day one, FB page still online, ASIC warning, CySEC warningIFSC warning, FSMA warning revealing that deposits went to Taris Financial Corp, not present in offshore leaks, Cypriot, Vanuatu, Belize or Marshal Islands registers, but with bank account in Cyprus, meaning it had to be incorporated somewhere to obtain a bank account. Possible best match via google search would be a few companies named Taris from Riga, Latvia, or Sofia, Bulgaria, but it’s just a random speculation with no actual meaning, or any insinuation towards those companies. Whatever it is, it’s obvious that they continued a scam. Lau Global, thanks to ICIJ offshore leaks, can be de-masked fully: Offshoreleaks-LauGlobal. Lau Global was the sole shareholder of 2014 Malta-incorporated Grizzly Ltd. Looks like the entire structure from the start was prepared in 2014 and, once the time came, just relocated, implying a plan/intention, from the start. Grizzly Ltd has one owner, Mr. Shlomo Matan Shalom Avshalom, an Israeli national, with Philippines address, per offshore leaks. This was very indicative to us, as we had the information some time ago to pursue some lawyers and Philippines call centers direction, to get to the bottom of this scheme setup. So we did. Others who looked into this information just continued with having a name from offshore leaks, but no more. Let’s have a look at this Mr Avshalom more, shall we?

In offshore leaks, Shlomo Matan Shalom Avshalom, linked to Philippines and Israel residency addresses, is the director and legal/judicial representative of Malta based Quick Solutions Ltd (2014) and Grizzly Ltd (2015), with his registered address (another company): BSD Trading Service Corp, Office O5M, Berthaphil Compound, Jose Abad Santos Avenue, Angeles, Pampanga, Philippines. Quick Solutions is owned by Belize IBC called High Moon International Inc, while Grizzly Ltd is owned by Belize IBC Lau Global Service Corp. Both Grizzly and Quick solutions have the identical Malta address registered. It looks like this:

Back to business. Following the trail of the lawyer and the Philippines address, we land at Pampanga, PH. A well-known place for numerous call-centers, as well as India for example, again industry-wide known facts. Truly a lot of customer care offices for hundreds of different businesses, an army of cheap multilingual workforce. Over the years, we all witnessed even some police raids to scam call centers, over there they even announce it on TV, with full press conference and detained agent’s close-ups on national frequencies. As for our story, the address in offshore leaks revealed Mr. Avshalom’s Pampanga address for BSD Trade Services Corp or rather, BSD Trading Services Corp. BSD Trading/Trade Serv. Corp is actually a Philippines BPO, a call-center, however incorporated in Singapore: link and maybe Hong Kong

PART 2 MTI Markets scam broker was a bit different setup, more Europe oriented, involving directly different people, but ultimately all being connected in this generic FSM Scheme. Allegedly ran via Marshal Islands company MTI Investments Llc (search, closed in 2018). Warnings and reviews: FPA, link with operator names. MTI Markets main domain was registered like this link. 2015 registrant is the Belize company MTI Group Ltd t/a MTI Markets: link, domains screaming with known ‘exo’ and ‘mti’ pretexts. Indicated people were: Mr. Armin Ordodary, (Iranian with Cyprus residency, former Windsor Brokers employee), Mr. Ali Mahmoudi (Iran) and Mr. Mathew Bradley (??). You are encouraged to browse domain big data tools, so you can find them all and see the connections, explore domains etc. We will focus our attention here to Mr. Armin Ordodary now. For a very good reason. Armin Ordodary, an Iranian national, with Cyprus residency, is in the business for a long time. Picture from Windsor Broker celebration link and other publicly available ones:

Benrich Holdings Ltd, Cyprus link

Benrich Trading Ltd, Cyprus link

Bythos Yacht Management OU, Estonia link, link

Siao Ltd, Cyprus (see more domains under this one, incl. Twitter acct link) link

AGFM Ltd, Cyprus link

Nepcore (essentially CRM gateway provider, reg. via A. Ordodary link)

Possibly Orden Capital HK (domain big data, linked to him, typical names like ordencapital, ordenholdings etc) link

BizTech DOO, Serbia link

BizServe DOO, Serbia, formerly known as Upmarkt DOO link

Here is where we get to the FSM Smart scam broker, FB page, LinkedIn page. While Siao, Nepcore, Orden and Bythos were reserved for CRM, PSPs, payment intermediaries, essentially different work within the scam group, Benrich offices, possibly AGFM and certainly BizTech/Serve offices were boiler rooms with agents working primarily on FSM Smart scam, while other 2 brands of the ‘fantastic scam trio’ (Trade12 and HQBroker) were handled via other arms of this vast scheme group (in BPOs located in Ukraine, Albania and Georgia, will be elaborated later on). And since Mr. Armin Ordodary directly holds ownership in both Benrich and both BizTech/Serve, directly or indirectly, this leads to the conclusion that this young man’s role in this scam scheme is for MTIMarkets and FSMSmart scams primarily. In fact, we have verified information that Benrich Holdings Cyprus was or still is a place where agents work, mainly in English and Italian language, while the Serbian subsidiary of Benrich, Upmarkt/Bizserve (allegedly closed due to bad results) was a so-called FTD center, acquiring new clients for FSM Smart scheme.

Serbian boiler room - Upmarkt doo Companies extracts prove Benrich holds stake in Serbian subsidiary and Armin’s ownership of another one, as well as local name change :

Upmarkt doo job advertisements 2018: link, sales agent, English, Italian, knowledge of economics, relocation worldwide possible, etc; another one for university students link, some managers and agents interesting LinkedIn profiles:

link Israeli manager, outsourced by co-owners from Israel and France, per exclusive info we have, apparently longstanding in this scam business, very vague (careful?) with public display of his past experience:

Cyprus boiler room – Benrich Holdings Ltd

A place where apparently Retention agents operated. Besides English language, this was or still is a place where most of FSM Smart scams in Italian language happen. Few of the agents operating at one point in that office, between 2018-2019, per LinkedIn reveal that a spinoff facility was probably used for scamming, as well - Topright Trading Limited Cyprus, link:

link retention agent (note previous engagement in exposed boiler Smardis doo):

So, this Topright Trading Ltd Cyprus link, is per registrar, managed/owned by Ms Martha Lambrianou, per LinkedIn an employee of CYSEC regulated K-DNA Financial Services Ltd link (reg. forex brands that are defunct, badly reviewed or with no impact to the industry). As for the rest of her CV, this Tadawul is bad news definitely - link

Here we conclude PART 2 and move to PART 3 shortly.

I have not personally investigated all of the information in this thread. What I can tell you is that someone doesn't want you to see it. Someone went to a great deal of effort to try to get the FPA to remove all the information Scam Reporters posted here.

Another site owner filed a malicious and false DMCA against the FPA after Part 1 of this thread was posted. This site is filled with news items that appear to be borrowed or stolen from major news sites. In the middle of all of the latest major news items taken from news sites, a copy of Post 1 was retroactively inserted.

The complaining site is based on WordPress. WordPress makes backdating a post easy. Years ago, one of ForexGen's many spammers tried to "prove" something at the FPA had existed for more than a short period of time. The scammers behind that backdated a blog post to before the original ForexPeaceArmy.com registration date.

In this case, they first posted a backdated version of Part 1 of this post and DMCAed the FPA, demanding removal of material that was originally published here. The FPA disputed this, and then they followed up with a backdated copy of Part 2.

PART 3

In this part, we will focus our attention to money flow in the FSM part, followed by more close ties between FSM SMART, TRADE12 and HQBROKER, obviously set for Part 4. We actually believe this entire FSM Scheme Thread will have at least parts 4 and 5. Maybe even 6? We told you it would be complicated, so hold on. And stay tuned. A lot more is coming. And a few surprise guests to back us up here with their stories and/or documents.

FSM SMART As we previously stated and proved, all of the 3 brands are part of the same scheme, same, for now unidentified UBOs in the end. Apparently, some dangerous people, as stated already. Ok, noted. We are neither 'impressed' nor frightened. In fact, it should be the other way around, if they have any 'smarts', because of the ongoing investigations. Slow, but getting there...

Now, let's see who are the operators (PSPs, intermediaries and a few more boiler rooms), where does the client money go and who receives it. These information may become crucial for anyone aiming to recover his ''lost'' (stolen) funds.

In the FSM Smart(s) T&C (here:link), bottom of the page 6, FSM Smart declares its operator/owner to be both FSMSmart Ltd (Marshal Islands) and Memphis Investments Sp. z o.o. (Poland).

This Polish legal entity Memphis Investments Sp. z o.o. points to a quite interesting direction. Company details here: link. Authorized person, a lady called Pawluk Patrycja. She holds other nominations in the registrar (link) so she is not that important (a nominee director/holder, so called 'monkey', paid to register a local company, however legally liable, weather she likes it or not). Those registered in the Memphis ownership structure, on the other hand, are important, as they lead to a new direction of the FSM SCHEME environment: Memphis breakdown. As any other similar company used for the same illicit business, first ones registered as owner(s) that committed capital, are quickly removed and an actual person or persons are delegated. They do the actual business. In Memphis Poland case, it was like this:

- Income Class - True Capital Pro - Profitix

Valuable links of warnings and info: ASIC, NZ.FMA, Consob,...you get the picture. After this relatively short part, it can be more clear why would an offshore FSMSmart require UK arbitration, while at all times they claim to be located in Switzerland (Lucern), although off course they are not. However, Mr Mordechai Moshe Rosenbaum is in the UK. And possibly in the USA/Canada as well. Where actually most of the FSM Scheme client deposits went. But that's the story for the following parts.

PART 4

This part 4 will deal with Trade12, HQBroker and FSMSmart(s) ties more closely. As proved previously, the scams are a part of the same racket. FSMSmart is to some extent covered here. Let's move on to the other 2 ones.

HQBroker scam has many bad reviews and warnings worldwide, link. Google them if you like, here's FCA . Targeted countries mainly Canada, Australia, New Zealand, a bit of UK and maybe some other Asian countries. Operated nominally by Capzone Invest Ltd, Marshal Islands, with fake Hong Kong address on their website.

Capzone Invest Ltd is now defunct/closed, as of May 2020. HQBroker still operates normally.

Time does fly...Finally, continuing part 4.

HQBroker brand, equally blatant scam as Trade12 and part of the very same scheme, was meant more for Asia-Pacific regions and the Americas (USA excluded, they were not that stupid). Europeans too but, mainly those regions. Aussies and Canadians were favorite, big money was taken few years ago.

Then 'bad times' hit Trade12/HQBroker scammers. Apparently, Trade12 got greedy and engaged with local people as leads to be scammed. Then in December 2018, an event took place in Ukraine, where the actual boiler rooms were located. Locals started complaining as they were loosing all money and eventually Ukrainian cyber police had to intervene - they raided offices, apartments and arrested many, seized money, IT equipment, drugs, documents and all sort of things a 'normal' boiler room contains.

Ukrainian delegated court was after that overwhelmed with things to process in this case, however it was not important to foreign victims as they could not legally participate, we were explained. Pity.

3 things are interesting regarding this short press release: 2 pieces of information from it and a chain of events triggered by it. First, the news comment section:

Going forward, there is a FPA member Scam-Rescue, a Canadian guy, that got scammed and posted a review here but also started his own website, that we had the pleasure to see grow over the past few years, from simple and honestly angry post to a developed actions against such scams in general and possible ways through the system to retrieve lost funds (chargeback options). We are not promoting it here but state that this brave young man took a stand, all alone - and made it. Bravo! We'll show you some interesting info re his 'case'. Coming up soon...

To conclude Part 4: FPA member Scam-Rescue told his story here. That was his scam experience with HQBroker in a nutshell (stripped of his money by retention agents and recovery agents, which are usually the same). More detailed information kindly provided to us, show the following - money flow:

Amongst the 4 identical US California shells, 2 we recognize easy: Capzone Llc and Fsmsmart Llc. Other 2 are Trend Line Llc and Rbc Solutions Llc. This Trend Line Llc may or may not be associated to the Ukrainian TrendLine Group (https://trendline.group/en) details here, we do not know, but that company deals in It infrastructure, domain hosting, similar services...

California business extracts link, link, shows Vcorp Services (their LA office), used for incorporation of all of them, within a few days time (7th to 13th Feb 2018).

So, Cristina Teoxon Watson, added to Ms Nora Toexon Carlos. Honest mistake in misspelling? No. Obviously related and both involved. Intentional misspelling of names in registrars is scammers specialty in forex space, we learned that long ago, especially with the Israeli, Russian, Ukrainian, Arab and Hindi names in UK registrars. It happens quite often.

Christina Teoxon Watson available details: https://www.whitepages.com/name/Cristina-Teoxon-Watson/Broken-Bow-OK/17qew8nr (per last address, moved far away from Vallejo, CA to Broken Bow, Oklahoma). http://www.dentistscalifornia.org/watson-cristina-teoxon (dental assistant till end 2016)

The above search and details should really be something the law enforcement should investigate, as it is a clear link to the scam scheme FSMSmart and 'co'. But, there is very low chance that it will be done. At least here victims and interested parties have a permanent record for future reference.

For a closure of Part 4, we will just add that more was available re HQBroker and its Philippines BDS Services ltd - call center exposed earlier in this long thread. But the 'smart' scheme guys made it happen and the person exposing at the time had to remove/block the content. Damn shame! Still, lot is available for readers who want to learn all that there is on this scheme at: https://wealthesteem.org/?s=hqbroker

Now we finally conclude Part 4 and move to Part 5 creation - more boiler rooms to be exposed and people around them.

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Under Armour Inc. posted its strong 4th quarter earnings that beat analysts’ estimates, despite slow sales in the United States.

The athletic-wear company’s shares were up more than 17% in early morning trading before finishing at $15.29 on Tuesday’s session. Its shares were heavily shorted and analysts said that Tuesday’s sharp move was also a sign of short coverings.

Under Armour reported a loss of $87.9 million, or 20 cents per Class C share, in the quarter that ended December 31, compared with a profit of $103.2 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier.

The reported quarter included a one-time charge of $39 million due to the US tax overhaul.

Overall revenue for the quarter rose 5%, or 4% excluding currency changes, to $1.4 billion, while analysts expected $1.3 billion.

A 47% rise in international revenue offset a 4% decline in North America, and international business contributed 23% of total revenue. The Asia-Pacific region, where Under Armour has more than 60 stores, is one of its highest-growth areas and the most profitable in its international business.

Growth in Europe, Middle East, and Africa rose 45.5%, Asia-Pacific jumped 55.7%, and Latin America soared 36%.

Footwear sales grew 9% to $246 million, boosted by strength in running, but offset by declines in team sports and basketball. Apparel sales rose 2% to $952 million, buoyed by growth in men’s training and soccer, but offset by declines in team sports and outdoor categories.

The company’s sales growth in its online and branded store channels increased 11%, while sales to wholesale customers, which included retailers such as sporting goods stores, dropped 1% to $733 million. Sales through websites and branded stores jumped 42% of the quarter’s global revenue.

Moreover, the company said that it expects 2018 revenues to increase by low single-digit percentage rate. While revenues from North America are likely to decline by mid-single-digit, international revenues are anticipated to increase above 25%.

“After years of rapid growth and building a globally recognized brand, the dynamic landscape of 2017 was a catalyst for us to begin strategically transforming Under Armour into an operationally excellent company,” CEO Kevin Plank said.

On Tuesday, the company also announced its 2nd restructuring plan, which will include up to $55 million in facility and lease terminations, and up to $50 million in contract termination and other charges. The plan also includes about $25 million in non-cash charges, including up to $10 million of inventory-related charges. Layoffs were not included, said the company.

“Following many years of rapid growth, we are in the process of simplifying operations,” Under Armour President Patrik Frisk told analysts.