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The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warns the public of suspicious investment products involving “Hong Kong International Financial Centre Token” (IFCT) and its associated projects and arrangements (Product) (Notes 1 and 2).
The related marketing materials claim that the Product was officially approved in Hong Kong but it has not been authorised by the SFC for offering to the Hong Kong public (Notes 3 and 4).
The SFC noted that information regarding the Product is accessible to the Hong Kong public on the website of the Product (https://ifctchain.com) and a team manages public accounts or channels on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/kootoken), X (https://twitter.com/IFCT_Chain) and Telegram (https://t.me/ifct_chain). The Product and its related information were posted on the SFC’s Suspicious Investment Products Alert List on 7 February 2024.
The public is warned against investing in any non-SFC authorised investment products. As these products are not regulated by the SFC, investors have no or very limited protection and may lose all their investments.
The SFC will take all appropriate actions where there is any breach of the law.
Notes:
- Hong Kong International Financial Centre Token is sometimes referred to as Hong Kong International Financial Center Token in some of the marketing materials.
- The Product involves potential public offering of IFCT, node pledging and financial management of IFCT, offering of meta-universe that offers virtual lands and digital entertainment, etc., introducing digital offshore RMB and digital Hong Kong dollar and other arrangements and offerings.
- The Product displays characteristics of a collective investment scheme (CIS) as defined in section 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the SFO. It is an offence under section 103 of the SFO for a person to issue, whether in Hong Kong or elsewhere, an advertisement, invitation or document which is or contains an invitation to the Hong Kong public to acquire an interest in or participate in a CIS, unless the SFC has authorised the issue or an exemption applies. In general, CIS must be sold by an intermediary licensed by or registered with the SFC. Unauthorised CIS may generally be sold to professional investors only.
- It is an offence under section 114 of the SFO for a person to carry on, or hold himself out as carrying on, a business in a regulated activity (which will include promoting interests in a CIS) without a licence where required. It is also an offence under section 115 of the SFO for a person to actively market, whether in Hong Kong or from a place outside Hong Kong, to the Hong Kong public any services that the person provides, and such services, if provided in Hong Kong, would constitute a regulated activity.
