Regulators in Cyprus have referred Genius Funds for criminal investigation and released a warning that the company “[is] not permitted to provide investment and ancillary services in the Republic.”
Genius Funds, a darling of the HYIP world, was heavily promoted on the Ponzi boards. The program also is known as Genius Investments. The program was referred for criminal investigation by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, which also issued the warning. The announcement that the case was referred for criminal investigation was made Friday in Cyprus.
One of the matters referred for criminal investigation pertained to a question about whether Genius Funds used a “falsified document that possibly stated that it possessed an operational license which was not authentic,” the Cypriot regulator said.
Separately, Canadian securities regulators also have acted against Genius Funds, permanently banning the HYIP “for illegally selling securities,” the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) said.
Genius Funds’ website is throwing a server error.
The program was pitched on the pro-AdSurfDaily Surf’s Up forum in December by a poster who dubbed himself “joe.” Genius Funds was one of four HYIP’s pitched by “joe” in an egg-themed promotion. The egg-themed domains redirected to HYIP programs.
All of the programs appear to have failed or gone missing, but the egg-themed domain names now redirect to other HYIPs.
“ALL MY EGGS ARE NOT IN ONE BASKET,” the Surf’s Up pitchman said in all-caps. “I MAKE 2000.00 A WEEK.â€
Some ASD members continued to promote autosurfs and HYIPs after the federal seizure of tens of millions of dollars from the personal bank accounts of ASD President Andy Bowdoin in August 2008. The Surf’s Up forum went missing earlier this year.
In recent weeks, the Golden Panda Ad Zone forum (also known as the Online Success Zone forum), another website from which ASD members pitched autosurf and HYIP programs, also went missing.
BCSC opened its probe into Genius Funds after receiving a tip from “a financial institution,” the agency said.
Read the Genius Funds’ announcement from Cyprus. Read the announcement from Canada.