UK Firm Offered “100 Certy” Crypto Investment Advice; Gets Wind-up Order

A court in the United Kingdom has ordered the winding up of Amey Finance Academy, which offered cryptocurrency investment advice, after many of its customers lost their money. The company even had ties with a $1.7 billion crypto Ponzi scheme and told one of its customers that its advice was “100 certy” and “trust me bro.”

A Shutdown Order by the Court

The UK's Insolvency Service, which was investigating Amey Financial, obtained the shutdown order from the High Court in London. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) also stepped in to highlight that the company was “providing financial services or products” without its authorisation.

According to the Insolvency Service, Amey was established in December 2018 by its 42-year-old sole director and shareholder, Desmond Amey, who described himself as a “wealth creation expert.”

However, many consumers of the investment advisory company complained that they lost money in investment opportunities. One customer who lost all the invested money was assured by the company that the investment would not drop below 90 percent.

“Desmond Amey used Amey Finance Academy to recklessly persuade individuals to invest in cryptocurrency schemes and mislead them about the risks of doing so,” said Mark George, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service.

“His claims to offer a financial education and concierge service will be of no comfort to customers who lost their money in investments he actively encouraged.”

Controversial Ties

Apart from the skewed investment advice, Amey Financial also promoted the schemes of HyperFund, which raised more than $1.7 billion from investors globally but turned out to be a Ponzi scheme. The authorities in the UK and New Zealand warned against HyperFund, and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission also charged the founder of HyperFund with fraud.

The Insolvency Service further revealed that the owner of Amey Finance provided contradictory information about his company’s relationship with HyperFund and said that he used the business bank account of his company to help people buy cryptocurrencies via a separate company, Bleuguava. However, he failed to provide any up-to-date accounting records and thus, the authority could not establish the true relationship between the companies: Amey Finance and HyperFund or Bleuguava.

“The failure to deliver adequate accounting records and a general lack of transparency shown has prevented the Insolvency Service from establishing the true extent of the company’s activities, its assets and liabilities, or the use of £5 million which passed through the company’s bank account between October 2019 and March 2022,” George added.