FinTelegram has been following the offshore activities of the FCA-regulated TIO Markets for some time. The Spanish CNMV and the Italian Consob have already issued warnings against the offshore broker TIOmarkets, operated by TIO Markets Ltd in St. Vincent & The Grenadines. This offshore broker is evidently related to the FCA-regulated investment firm. TIOmarkets is chasing after new European clients via Google ad campaigns. Praxis Pay and Monsas are the payment processors.
Key data
| Trading name | TIOmarkets |
| Domain | https://tiomarkets.com |
| Legal entities | TIO Markets Ltd (SVG) TIO Markets UK Limited (UK) regulated by FCA |
| Jurisdictions | United Kingdoms St. Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG) |
| Related individuals | Edward Damian Francis (British) Simon Quirke (British) Manmohan Singh Balbir Singh (Malaysian residing in Cyprus) |
| Payment processors | Praxis Cashier Monsas (UK), Monsas (PL) ISXPAY iSignthis eMoney Ltd |
| Warnings | CNMV, Consob |
The scam narrative
In the UK, the TIOMarkets scheme works via TIO Markets UK Limited, registered with company no 06592025 and controlled by Malaysian Manmohan Singh Balbir Singh, who allegedly resides in Cyprus. The British citizen and residents Damien Edward Francis and Simon Quirke are registered as directors. The FCA regulates this UK entity with reference no 488900. The FCA-regulated and the offshore mutation work with the same logo, have the same look and feel and use the same software. The chances are that they are related.
The offshore TIOmarkets scam is facilitated by the Israeli-Cypriot payment processor Praxis Cashier for bank wires and deposits via debit and credit cards.
Changing payment processors
In our initial review in Oct 2021, we found Monsas Ltd, a company registered in the UK with company no 10189197 is specified as a payment processor for bank transfers. Monsas Ltd is an FCA–regulated company. Potential victims were asked to make bank transfers in GBP, Euro US dollars to the bank account with IBAN GB05 COUT 1800 9101 6075 88 at Coutts&Co bank in London.
In our follow-up review in Feb 2022, TIOmarkets changed the payment processor for bank wires. The FCA-regulated payment processor Monsas was replaced by the notorious ISXPAY iSignthis eMoney Ltd in Cyprus. The offshore entity TIO Markets Ltd has a bank account with IBAN CY93904000010003500061101000 to which the clients (victims) of the broker scam are supposed to deposit.
In our review on April 13, 2022, iSignthis was no longer found as a payment processor. It was replaced by the Polish Monsas SP. Z.O.O. (www.monsas.pl), a payment institution regulated by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (UKNF). The Polish Monsas is part of the FCA-regulated Monsas group. On the payment instructions of TIOmarkets, clients are instructed to make bank transfers to the company’s account at Aion S.A. in Belgium (IBAN BE25648752100582).
Share information
Stay far, far away from TIOMarkets, and keep your money and data. If you are a victim of the scam or have any information about it, please share it with us through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
