For regular readers of FinTelegram, it is no secret that we put a special focus on offshore broker activities in our market monitoring. An efficient way to detect unauthorized offshore brokers is to follow fraudulent marketing campaigns and fake review sites. Today the fake review site Top Brokers Comparison led us to Pacific Union Group a/k/a PU PRIME which acquires clients worldwide. While we do not deem PU Prime as a scam, we established that they offer their regulated financial services unauthorized in Europe and most other regulatory regimes.
The key data
| Trading name | PU PRIME PACIFIC UNION |
| Domain | https://puprime.com |
| Legal entities | Pacific Union (Seychelles) Limited (Seychelles) Pacific Union Group Pty Ltd (Australia) Pacific Union Group Ltd (CySEC) |
| Jurisdiction | Seychelles |
| Regulation | FSA Seychelles with license no. SD050 CySEC with license no. 342/17 |
| Related individual | James Kitheka Weiro Ma |
| Payment options | Bank transfer, credit cards e-wallets, crypto |
| Payment Processors | Commonwealth Bank of Australia TrustWorthy Pay, Perfect Money, FasaPay, AstroPay, SticPay |
Short narrative
PU Prime is a very well-made broker and looks very professional. Apart from the fact that no further details about the operators are given. In addition to the website, the broker also operates various social media channels to solicit and inform customers. The Pacific Union Group d/b/a PU Prime is an Australian venture with a strong presence in Asia. Pacific Union Group Ltd is a CySEC-regulated investment firm.
Pre-verification deposits
In our review on April 14, 2022, we registered as residents of the EU and the UK without any problems. Before completing the KYC/AML check and verifying our identity, we could have theoretically made transfers via SWIFT to Pacific Union Group Pty Ltd‘s bank account at Commonwealth Bank of Australia with no limit on the amount we could transfer.
We could have also made unlimited pre-verification deposits using Bitcoin or Perfect Money. The involved crypto payment processor is TrustWorth Pay.
By credit card, we could have made pre-verification transfers up to a maximum of $20,000.
Preliminary conclusion
PU Prime indeed has a securities dealer license from the FSA Seychelles. However, it is also certain that this license does not authorize PU Prime to offer regulated financial products such as CFD in Europe, North America, or most other regulatory regimes. PU Prime is acting unauthorized and, therefore, illegal in these regimes.
Theoretically, unlimited pre-verification deposits are not compliant with the regulatory frameworks of the FCA, ESMA, or other regimes. In this respect, PU Prime would violate regulatory requirements even in the presence of authorization (which does not exist).
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.
