The United Kingdom authorities have taken decisive action against a crypto academy. The academy, known as Amey Finance Academy, has been officially shut down amid allegations of its founder using it as a platform to “recklessly persuade” individuals to participate in loss-making investment schemes. One such scheme is an alleged $1.7 billion crypto “Ponzi.”
The Insolvency Service, a government agency in the United Kingdom, has shed light on the operations of Amey Finance Academy. The academy purportedly offered advice to individuals interested in investing in a variety of cryptocurrency schemes. However, the reality was far from what was promised. Some customers, lured by the misleading promises made by the firm’s sole director and shareholder, lost their entire investments.
Misleading Crypto Promises and the Fallout
WhatsApp messages, now in the possession of investigators, reveal the extent of the deception. In one such message, the director, Amey, assured a customer that their investments were a “100 certy” and implored them to “trust me bro.” In another instance, Amey assured a customer that their investment wouldn’t fall below 90%. Unfortunately, this customer ended up losing everything.
Mark George, the chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, stated, “Desmond Amey used Amey Finance Academy to recklessly persuade individuals to invest in cryptocurrency schemes and mislead them about the risks of doing so.”
The closure of Amey’s firm by the Insolvency Service came two weeks after a winding-up order was secured against the firm in the U.K. High Court on April 30. One of the cryptocurrency schemes promoted by the firm was HyperFund, later known as HyperVerse. This alleged Ponzi scheme managed to evade the scrutiny of Australian authorities for nearly two years.
Two lead operators behind HyperVerse have since been charged by the United States securities regulator, which alleges that the firm ran a $1.7 billion fraud scheme. However, due to Amey’s failure to provide up-to-date accounting records, the Insolvency Service was unable to establish the true relationship between Amey Finance Academy and HyperVerse.
This lack of transparency left the Insolvency Service with no choice but to seek a wind-up order, as explained by George. He stated, “The public deserve protection from companies trading in an opaque and objectionable manner which is why we applied to have Amey Finance Academy shut down.”
Between October 2019 and March 2022, about $6.3 million (5 million Great Britain pounds) passed through Amey Finance Academy’s bank account. However, the firm’s assets and liabilities remain unknown due to the lack of transparency.
Amey’s firm, launched in December 2018, claimed to be “an established and successful independent consultancy providing a plethora of financial services.” Cointelegraph reached out to Desmond Amey for comment on these developments, but there has been no response at the time of writing. This incident serves as a stark reminder of the risks associated with cryptocurrency investments and the importance of transparency and accountability in this rapidly evolving sector.
