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Call it the con of the decade, or just another Tuesday in South Africa’s under-policed financial world — either way, insiders are pegging this as one of the most audacious scams ever to wash up on our shores.
An international fraud ring, dressed up as legit financial service providers, has allegedly looted local investors to the tune of hundreds of millions. And the country’s financial watchdog? Mostly watching.
At the heart of this mess sits a tight little network of South African companies flexing borrowed credibility. Astrix Data (Pty) Ltd and its sidekicks, Vector Financial Services and Libra Wealth, strutted around with authentic Financial Service Provider (FSP) licenses, running trading platforms like Finbok, Finxocap, and VP Trade. The pitch is slick, legal, and profitable. But the reality is over R300 million sucked from South African wallets since 2023.
All thanks to that shiny FSCA license. The moment investors saw it, they assumed “safe as houses.” Instead, the only thing these platforms seem to have traded was empty promises.
AmaBhungane’s globe-trotting investigation peeled back the curtain to reveal a couple of unlikely masterminds – an unemployed Bulgarian cleaner, Boris Kodzhov, and a Romanian model, Diana Gugles. But don’t get too attached to that plot twist; both are likely identity theft victims, human window dressing for what international investigators have already dubbed the “Scam Empire.”
At the end of the day, there was no trading, and the only thing getting worked was investor gullibility. Internal spreadsheets, emails, and recordings point to a “dealing desk” whose job wasn’t to trade but to tinker – adjusting trades, faking outcomes, and even deleting transactions altogether.
And the withdrawal stats tell the same sad tale. Globally, $247 million was deposited, and just $7 million dribbled back out. Locally, R300 million was collected, with a few crumbs begrudgingly returned to a handful of squeaky wheels.
Behind those polished websites lay a labyrinth of dodgy payment providers, featuring — I kid you not — a Benoni scrap metal dealer, a Nigerian remittance firm, and money launderers flagged in Kenya and Ukraine. Once the cash hit these intermediaries, it was crypto’d out of sight into a web of 77,000 unique wallets. Cape Town-based Xago Technologies even shows up as a regular stop on this money-laundering scenic route, helping scrub the cash squeaky clean.
And where’s the regulator in all this? The FSCA first got wind of complaints in late 2023. It officially started poking around in June 2024. Fast forward almost a year, and the only thing that’s moved is the excuse factory. Cue their boilerplate response:
“Since the FSCA has warned the public of the investigation into Finbok, Vector Financial Services (Pty) Ltd and Astrix Data (Pty) Ltd, it has been actively investigating these parties. This was as a result of complaints received from members of the public. The investigation is ongoing and has been prioritised.”
And the follow-up:
“The FSCA is not yet in a position to consider administrative action against the entities but will reconsider its position once it is in possession of sufficient evidence to do so. The FSCA will inform the public if any action is taken.”
In other words, “We’ve seen the house on fire but haven’t decided if it’s smoky enough to call the fire brigade.”
Meanwhile, Astrix is still proudly listed as a licensed financial service provider on the FSCA’s site, ready to snare the next poor soul.
Now here’s where the plot thickens. Compare this hands-off approach to the FSCA’s high-speed takedown of Banxso – a local trade firm accused of, wait for it, misleading advertising. No allegations of global fraud, no vanishing millions, just some marketing drama. Yet the FSCA yanked Banxso’s license before finishing its investigation. Six months on, no report, no verdict — license still revoked, business shredded.
In the wings: seven applicants represented by Mostert and Bosmanwho are effectively holding the entire customer base of Banxso to ransom. More than R70 million remains frozen pending the outcome in a matter where the FSCA is joined as a respondent.
So the question lingers: Why does a firm linked to alleged global fraud get to carry on as normal, while another gets the corporate equivalent of the death penalty over a disputed ad?
Strip away the billion-rand figures, and the real damage hits home: retirees, small business owners, and everyday South Africans are wiped out. One investor lost both her pension and her child’s university fund. Another was conned out of R400,000 after falling for a Facebook ad featuring a well-known local consumer rights journalist, who later confirmed the ad was fake.
Every day the FSCA drags its feet, more victims fall into the trap.
What’s playing out here isn’t just some clerical slip. This is a full-blown integrity crisis. Regulation only works when it’s sharp, fair, and fast. But when the same agency that slammed Banxso for “advertising sins” leaves Astrix, with its mountain of leaked data and international investigations, free to keep trading? You’ve got to wonder whose side the watchdog is on.
The bottom line: buyers beware.
Until the FSCA shows some bite, not just bark, even licensed financial service providers aren’t a safe bet. The Astrix scandal proves that in the wild west of South Africa’s investment scene, a license might just be a scammer’s favourite accessory.
Right now the only thing more dangerous than investing blindly is trusting the system to have your back.
[Source: IOL]
