CAYMAN COMPANY MISREPRESENTED AS A BANK TO CANADIAN INVESTORS IN FORGED DOCUMENT

As a financial crime consultant for twenty-five years, I often review documents for indicia of financial crime, but the document I am about to discuss was prepared so poorly, such that multiple errors literally jump out at the reader, as evidence of fraud. I sincerely hope that the individual who prepared it is held accountable in a court of law; He or she should be held accountable for fraud.

When Dundee Merchants Bank went into liquidation in the Cayman Islands, Canadian nationals who had cash and securities at Dundee, pursuant to an agreement with their Canadian wealth management adviser, were falsely assured that their assets were being transferred to another licensed Cayman Islands bank, and that it possessed trust powers. Transfer Instructions for Cash, Securities and Corporate Records were prepared for the investors' signatures. There are just a few problems with those forms: the Instructions forms were altered, without the knowledge and consent of the investors, and signatures and initials were forged, for the purpose of deceiving the clients into thinking their assets were safe with a bank, when nothing was further from the truth.

The Instructions forms I saw had several glaring errors, inconsistencies and alterations, all of which are the badges of fraud. They include;

(1) Listing B & C Capital Ltd., a Cayman company that presently has no license, nor is exempt, under both "Beneficiary Bank," and "Name of Financial Institution." B & C is not now, nor has it ever been, a bank & trust company, or any other type of chartered or licensed financial institution.

(2) The space for SWIFT Code and IBAN Code, identifiers that are used to route funds to banks, contains no such information. Instead, there is an asterisk (*) and a note about wire transfer instructions regarding different types of currency. There is no further information set off with an asterisk anywhere on the document. We call that failure to attend to detail, and it is just one more indicator showing that fraud was present.

(3) The "Contact Person at Financial Institution" is listed as Fernando Mendes; this is Fernando MOTO Mendes, whose prior Cayman bankruptcy, criminal charges, and alleged misappropriation of funds surely disqualify him from serving as a Managing Director, or fiduciary, for any purpose. Was his last name altered, to keep the investors from discovering who he was, during a due diligence search ? The listed "bank" address is B & Cs office. Describing a small unlicensed company as a "bank," when it is not, is prima facie evidence of fraud, in my humble opinion.

(4) The type font on the signature page does NOT match that of the other two pages, the initial does not match the initials of the party to be charged, the signatory, and the signature is either a forgery, or a true copy of a signature on another document, what was fraudulently cut & pasted. The signatory did not sign such a document.

(5) The telephone number of the Service Provider is the old Dundee Bank number; is there a legitimate business reason for this ? Does it mislead investors  who were not aware that Dundee was liquidated ?

(6) Instruments such as these always contain clearly typed information, as funds transfers of large sums are involved. In this case, however, the information was poorly handwritten, in a thoroughly unprofessional manner. Legitimate financial professionals do not produce inferior work product like this; it was done, in haste, to cover up an ongoing fraud.

(6) Whether the document was created in Canada, at the offices of the wealth management firm that is now unable to withdraw funds for its clients, or in the Cayman Islands, by an agent of the Canadian company, I cannot say, but the Canadian investors appear to have a cause of action against it, and criminal charges could be filed.

Tomorrow, I shall publish the actual document, so that you can see for yourself that there were material misrepresentations of fact made to the investors, who presently cannot access their money. Readers who have not yet read my original articles on B & C Capital Ltd. can access them here*.
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*Where are the Managers of the Cayman company, B & C Capital Ltd. ?
Dodgy new Manager of Cayman Investment Company misleads Investors seeking withdrawals