Mondo Visione Worldwide Financial Markets Intelligence

FTSE Mondo Visione Exchanges Index:

CCData-468x60x2.jpg BT_Radianz_468x60_Jul23 FEAS 30th Anniversary Conference

Hong Kong Securities And Futures Commission Warns Public Of Suspicious Investment Products Offered By Free Guy, Gold Scalper And Gold Champ

Date 19/02/2024

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warned the public of several suspicious investment products – namely, “程式自由仁 - Free Guy - 帳戶託管”, “Gold Scalper黃金獵人” and “Gold Champ帳戶托管” (collectively as the Products) – involving automatic trading systems which invest in gold contracts for differences (CFD) and foreign exchange (forex).

The Products have not been authorised by the SFC for offering to the Hong Kong public and are suspected to have breached the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO) (Notes 1 & 2).

The SFC notes that the Products have been promoted through various social media accounts or channels to solicit investments in the Products, claiming to offer high returns in some cases.  In one of the cases, problems with fund withdrawal have been reported (Note 3).

The Products and their related information were posted on the SFC’s Suspicious Investment Products Alert List on 19 February 2024.

The public is warned against investing in any non-SFC authorised investment products.  As these products are not regulated by the SFC, their investors have no or very limited protection and may lose all their investments.  The SFC once again reminds the public to be cautious and skeptical about “too-good-to-be-true” investment opportunities, and to stay vigilant when making investment decisions.

Investigations are ongoing and the SFC will take all appropriate actions where there is any breach of the law.

Notes:

  1. The Products display 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.
  2. 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.
  3. The operation and promotion of the Products are detailed as follows:
MV 120 X 600 Hard to Reach BT_Radianz_120x600_Jul23.jpg FEAS_2025_MondioVisione_120x600-banner