Friday, November 22, 2024

Introducing CySEC-regulated Alvexo and its offshore onboarding activities!

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A few weeks ago, we published our initial review about the offshore broker Alvexo is operated by HSN Capital Group Ltd, regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) Seychelles. It is part of the CySEC-regulated Alvexo operated by VPR Safe Financial Group Ltd. The offshore broker accepts pre-KYC deposits with credit and debit cards, bank transfers, or e-wallets. In our follow-up review on May 2, 2022, we could have easily deposited €50,000 via bank transfer through the Nuvei cashier and optionally received a First Deposit Bonus of 30%.

Key data

Trading nameAlvexo
Domainwww.alvexo.eu (approved)
www.alvexo.fr (approved)
www.alvexo.de (approved)
www.alvexo.it (approved)
www.alvexo.com (offshore)
Legal entityVPR Safe Financial Group Limited (CySEC)
VPR Safe Financial Group UK Limited
HSN Capital Group Ltd (FSA)
JurisdictionsCyprus, United Kingdom,
Seychelles
RegulationCySEC with license no 236/14
FSA Seychelles with license no SD030
Related individualsYael Kleinman (LinkedIn)
Kostas Leonida
Andreas Kolonas
George Skordis
Agamemnon Ioannides
Dina Qumsieh
Payment optionsCredit card, Skrill,
Google Pay,
Bank wire
Payment providersnuvei, PaySafeCard,
SafetyPay
Facilitators1k Daily Profit (crypto fraud campaign)
BitIQ (crypto fraud campaign)
CySEC regulates Alvexo chases victims via its offshore entity and fraud crypto campaigns

The narrative

The offshore broker Alvexo claims to have more than 372,000 members generating more than $54 billion in trading volume. According to the UK Companies House, CySEC-regulated VPR Safe Financial Group Ltd is the sole shareholder of the UK entity. Andreas Kolonas, a Greek national living in Cyprus, is listed as the group’s beneficial owner.

Dutch citizen and Cyprus resident Yael Kleinman is registered as a director with both the CySEC-regulated Entity and the UK Entity. She is one of the key people in the Alvexo Group. According to her LinkedIn profile, she is an Israeli lawyer, admitted to the Israel Bar Association in 2011.

The CySEC-regulated broker has already had issues with compliance. In March 2021, VPR Safe Financial Group settled a CySEC investigation for possible violations of the Investment Services and Activities and Regulated Markets Law with a €100,000 payment.

In our follow-up review on 2 May 2022, we have been able to register as UK and EU residents. Without verifying our email or ID, we could have made pre-KYC deposits via credit cards, Skrill, bank wires, SafetyPay or PaySafeCard.

Conclusion

In our initial review, we found that Alvexo deploys fraudulent crypto campaigns such as 1k Daily Profit to solicit consumers with false promises and misrepresentations. In June 2021, the UK FCA banned CySEC-regulated BDSwiss Group because it did not comply with the regulatory framework, used offshore onboarding, and deployed misleading marketing practices (read FinTelegram report here).

The Alvexo Group, as well as other CySEC CIFs, systematically use offshore onboarding to circumvent and violate ESMA and CySEC regulatory requirements. Neither the onboarding procedure (without proper KYC/AML) nor the offered leverage levels typically comply with regulatory requirements in UK and EU. This offshore onboarding is done willfully and knowingly.

Clients of offshore entities are not entitled to investor compensation schemes or other regulatory intervention measures. They are also not entitled to assistance from Financial Ombudsman institutions.

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If you have information about Alvexo and its activities, please share it with us through our whistleblower system, Whistle42.