Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Compliance Issue! FCA-regulated TIOmarkets and its offshore broker activities!

Spread financial intelligence

The Spanish CNMV and the Italian Consob have already issued warnings against the offshore broker scam TIOmarkets (www.tiomarkets.com). TIO Markets Ltd, registered in St. Vincent & The Grenadines, allegedly runs the fraud. The offshore broker is evidently related to UK-registered TIO Markets (www.tiomarkets.uk), a financial institution regulated by the FCA. TIOmarkets is again chasing after new victims and fresh funds, offering a 50% discount on the required deposit for opening a VIP account. Praxis Pay and ISXPAY iSignThis are the payment processors.

Key data

Trading nameTIOmarkets
Domainhttps://tiomarkets.com
Legal entitiesTIO Markets Ltd (SVG)
TIO Markets UK Limited (UK) regulated by FCA
JurisdictionsUnited Kingdoms
St. Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG)
Related individualsEdward Damian Francis (British)
Simon Quirke (British)
Manmohan Singh Balbir Singh (Malaysian residing in Cyprus)
Payment processorsPraxis Cashier
Monsas, 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.

TIO Markets broker scheme facilitated by ISXPAY iSignthis eMoney

The offshore TIOmarkets scam is facilitated by the Israeli-Cypriot payment processor Praxis Cashier for bank wires and deposits via debit and credit cards.

After our review in October 2021, the involved FCA-regulated payment processor Monsas withdrew. Our new review on 21 Feb 2022 discovered the notorious ISXPAY iSignthis eMoney Ltd in Cyprus as the payment facilitator for bank transfers. 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.

FCA-regulated Monsas and Praxis Cashier facilitate TIOMarkets broker scam

In our initial review in Oct 2021, Monsas Ltd, a company registered in the UK with company no 10189197, was specified as a payment processor for bank transfers. Monsas Ltd is an FCA regulated company with reference number 753786. Potential victims are 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. The address given for Monsas at 18 Savile Row, Mayfair, London W1S 3PW is the correspondence address of a former director.

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.