Only at FNG… Following our report earlier this week on the accusations made by USGFX’s shareholder Soe Hein Minn (via his Vanuatu based offshore brokerage USG Global, which operates the usgfx.global website) against BRI Ferrier, the liquidator of the bankrupt Australia arm of USGFX, we spoke to BRI Ferrier and have their response, exclusively here at FNG.

As a reminder to our readers, the USGFX shareholder accused BRI Ferrier of a number of things, including that BRI “abused its power” and instructed the First Bank in Puerto Rico to freeze USGFX Global’s accounts there. We had earlier reported that USGFX Global in Vanuatu had been directly soliciting former USGFX Australia clients, instructing them to send money to those accounts in Puerto Rico.

The full response by BRI Ferrier follows. (We have added some bold typeface for emphasis, and links for background information).

We feel that it is important to respond to the inaccuracies in the USG Global statement.

Peter Krejci and Andrew Cummins are the Liquidators of Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd (USGFX) an Australian entity that collapsed into Liquidation. The Australian financial services regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) had pursued an investigation of USGFX since late 2019 for various questionable business practices, with the result being that its AFSL was cancelled and it ceased to trade. To date more than AUD$200M in creditor claims have been lodged in the USGFX Liquidation, and there are minimal assets that have been made available to satisfy those claims. The Liquidators investigations suggest that there are millions of dollars of clients funds that are unaccounted for.

Union Standard International Group Limited, also known as USG Global, is a Vanuatu based entity that is understood to have been set up and run by related parties of USGFX. On 8 February 2021, USG Global made a statement that the Liquidators of USGFX have somehow instructed the First Bank in Puerto Rico to freeze their bank accounts. That is simply untrue. The Liquidators have no power to freeze the bank accounts of another entity not controlled by them, without intervention of the Courts. No such Court order was obtained.

The Liquidators understand that the First Bank of Puerto Rico formed their own view not to deal with USG Global based on their own due diligence. That due diligence presumably included a review of the information provided to them by USG Global and also the publicly available information on the broader USG Group, such as the investigation and prosecution of USGFX by the ASIC. The Liquidators have discovered a number of concerning irregularities in the USGFX documentation and therefore can understand the position taken by the First Bank in Puerto Rico.

USGFX and its Liquidators have a number of claims against USG Global, including that USG Global (and the parties controlling it) have engaged in an illegal activity to the detriment of the USGFX creditors such as the illegal phoenixing of the USGFX business and its clients, engaged in misleading conduct and passing off, failing to deliver up records and assets. Of the AUD$200M in creditor claims lodged to date, the vast bulk are not recorded in the USGFX financial and MT4/5 records, which were controlled by the same (and related) parties that are understood to be running USG Global and that have refused to provide the Liquidators access.

Demands have been issued and there has been no meaningful response or compensation paid. However, noting the USG Global statement whereby they say that they “take the responsibilities to resolve the problems” of USGFX (presumably), the Liquidators invite them to make whole the AUD$200M+ of USGFX creditors without delay.