The offering contains numerous red flags, but the most glaring indicator of a potential fraud scheme is the claim to be able to "lease" a standby letter of credit. SBLC's do exist, and are governed by the International Chamber of Commerce Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits.
In legitimate business, a standby letter of credit, which is issued by a bank, is most often used to guarantee performance or to strengthen the credit worthiness of a customer in a SINGLE transaction. Normally, the transaction is secured a letter of credit, and the SBLC is a secondary mechanism to ensure payment to the beneficiary.
The standby letter of credit assures the beneficiary of the SBLC of the performance of the customer's obligation. The beneficiary is able to draw on the SBLC by presenting evidence to the issuing bank that the customer has not performed their obligation to pay. The bank is obligated to make payment if the claim presented complies with the terms of the SBLC.
SBLC's have an expiration date expiration date, which can be either a calendar date, or when the underlying business transaction has successfully completed.
Leasing of SBLC's does not occur in the legitimate business world, nor are they sold at a discount to be used as an investment vehicle.
Red Flags contained in the offering document:
- "Leasing" of a Bank Guarantee of SBLC - these do not occur in legitimate transactions
- Implied use of the SBLC as an investment vehicle, which they are not.
- Reference to "Top 25 World Banks" - not a reference used in legitimate transactions.
- Term of SBLC: "One year and one day" is not used in legitimate transactions.
- More than one issuing bank. Not done in legitimate transactions involving Letters of Credit.
- Transfer of document via Bonded Courier. Why? Most legitimate letter of credit transactions are processed electronically.
- Improper SWIFT codes for the type of purported transactions involved.
The website advertised by the post, worldassetgroup.com, when opened, is simply an e-mail portal. A whois lookup reveals the following location on Ice House Street in HongKong. Curiously enough, that address is the same location and floor for the Bank of New York's HongKong branch. The building is a general purpose 14-storey office building and likely houses a variety of tenants.
A search for the registrant, one Mssr. David Molina, reveals numerous business adverts listing worldassetgroup.com as a marble trading company. Marble and multi-billion dollar bank instruments? Sounds like a very diverse company.....
See this link: http://www.stonebtb.com/davidmolina162/video/
Unfortunately, the video does not appear to function, and we cannot get a peek at Mssr. Molina. He has, however, posted his resume on another website. http://www.postjobfree.com/resume/zaunw ... i-fl-33196
Given Mssr. Molina's claimed "background" in domestic and international finance, one would expect that he has, or had a securities license in the United States. A FINRA search does not reveal one. At one point Mssr. Molina did apparently have a Florida real estate license.
How Mssr. Molina, an apparent Florida resident, manages a multi-billion dollar company located in HongKong, China, is uncertain. Prior to investing any funds with this company, a prudent person would certainly want to ask numerous questions as part of their due diligence.
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World Assets Group Limited
New Henry House
10 Ice House Street, Hong Kong 100
Hong Kong
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: WORLDASSETGROUP.COM
Created on: 14-Feb-09
Expires on: 14-Feb-19
Last Updated on: 07-Sep-11
Administrative Contact:
Molina, David info@worldassetgroup.com
World Assets Group Limited
New Henry House
10 Ice House Street, Hong Kong 100
Hong Kong
+0.85228779255 Fax -- +0.85228779255
Technical Contact:
Molina, David info@worldassetgroup.com
World Assets Group Limited
New Henry House
10 Ice House Street, Hong Kong 100
Hong Kong
+0.85228779255 Fax -- +0.85228779255