In late November 2022 we reported on Fortuna Administration Limited, a supposed fund administration company based in St Vincent that actually has no office, nor staff on the island, only a web-site www.fortuna.vc which leads to a Liechtenstein financial services company, Scarabaeus Wealth Management AG.
Fortuna, Registration Number 20185, is still a registered entity in SVG, as per the Financial Services Authority web-site. On its web-site, it lists 6 investment funds it administers – all managed by Scarabaeus Wealth Management AG. So if no-one in SVG is administering these funds, calculating the share prices every month or quarter,then who is? Well look no further, and breathe a sigh of relief, for Fortuna also gives an address in the small principality of Liechtenstein, at the same address of er…. Scarabaeus.
We follow the thread, and go to www.oera.li, the commercial register of companies in Liechtenstein. A further shock, there is no such company Fortuna Administration registered in Liechtenstein, past or present…. So basically 6 investment funds managed by Scarabaeus Management Ltd. have no administrator whatsoever, despite the public offering documents (and approved by the FSA in SVG) on Fortuna’s web-site stating the legal terms of the 6 funds, with a fund administrator stated in each case.
Whilst any investor would be anticipating an independent fund administrator for avoidance of conflict of interest in calculating the share price at which investors invest in the fund, it appears that Madoff or Made-Up school of accounting is at work here and no-one is calculating the fund share prices… It would be interesting to get a comment from Michael Zuther, St Vincent Legal Advisor, who er.. is based in Switzerland and works for Scarabaeus..
