It was announced this week that deVere Group has been helping to expose an alleged monumental investment fraud in order to protect investors and try to recover assets.

As a company we have provided information to US-based OffshoreAlert, an influential financial news service run and managed by investigative journalist, David Marchant, evidence of what we believe could be serious misconduct and gross negligence by Mauritius-based Belvedere Management Group.
Belvedere Management Group is the administrator of Strategic Growth Fund (SGF), and approximately 120 other funds – and the evidence we have given OffshoreAlert we believe shows the alleged underhand dealings of Belvedere, the administrators of SGF.

deVere Group, along with other organisations and clients globally, were left exceptionally let down by the administrators of these funds, and perhaps the most surprising part of all is the evident warning signs of wrongdoing that appear to have been ignored by trusted professional service providers.

Investigations are consequently underway into what could, we suspect, become one of the world’s biggest ever frauds, with OffshoreAlert describing Belvedere Management Group as “an essentially criminal enterprise” claiming it has evidence they are in possession of “funds that are blatantly fraudulent.”

deVere was approached to invest in the Strategic Growth Fund some years ago, which at the time was described as “best of breed,” and outperforming the market at the time of any recommendations when due diligence was being undertaken by us.  However since 2011, the Strategic Growth Fund seriously underperformed and clients were strongly advised to withdraw.

I issued a memo to all deVere managers advising them to ask their clients to pull out of the Strategic Growth Fund, and days later the fund was suspended, it can be reasonably assumed, down to the high number of withdrawals from deVere clients.

Thankfully, since then, certain assets have been released and a number of deVere clients withdrew before the fund was frozen.  Nevertheless, even though only a small number of our clients were affected by this, even one client is one too many, which is why we are doing everything in our power to bring a welcome close to this situation.

As part of our support into this investigation, deVere Group is working with Cayman-based lawyers, expert in the recovery of assets; as well as lawyers in Guernsey, where indeed the fund was based; and additional lawyers and regulators in South Africa and Mauritius.

I would therefore urge anyone with any information about this case to report it to the authorities, so together we can use this as a stimulus to increase client protection and industry standards.

I am pleased we are supporting the work being undertaken by OffshoreAlert, and are fully behind the progress made by those investigating the matter, including regulators worldwide.

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