The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) today warns the public of suspicious investment products involving policies and gaming packages offered and marketed by ProCap International (ProCap) and its related entities.
ProCap claimed on its website (https://www.procap.insure) that these investment products provide insurance coverage of investment capital. The SFC notes that these products offer investors very high guaranteed returns at a rate ranging from 6% to 42% per month when investors engage in prediction games, together with other benefits including referral incentives.
Hong Kong investors may have been the target of these investment products promoted by ProCap and none of them have been authorised by the SFC for offering to the Hong Kong public (Notes 1 and 2). The SFC also notes that Hong Kong public could access information regarding these products via the internet.
As a result, the SFC posted these investment products and their related information on the SFC’s Suspicious Investment Products Alert List on 8 April 2024.
On this note, the SFC would like to caution the public against investing in any non-SFC authorised investment products. Since these products are not authorised by the SFC, investors have very limited or no protection and may lose all their investments. The SFC also reminds the public to be cautious about “too-good-to-be-true” investment opportunities and stay vigilant when making investment decisions.
The SFC will take all appropriate actions where there is any breach of the law.
Notes:
- These investment products appear to display characteristics of a collective investment scheme (CIS) as defined in section 1 of Part 1 of Schedule 1 to the Securities and Futures Ordinance (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.
