The South African Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has warned investors to be wary of a WhatsApp group using the name Citadel Investment Services. This group is not authorised to provide financial advice and intermediation services under the Financial Advice and Intermediary Services Act 2002 (FAIS Act).
The group is understood to be soliciting investments and promising outsized returns. They used the name of a legitimate financial services provider, namely Citadel Investment Services (Pty) Ltd (CIS), in an attempt to cover up the fact that they were providing financial services illegally.
CIS is a subsidiary of Citadel Holdings (Pty) Ltd, and the group’s administrators copied and uploaded content from CIS’s social media platform to WhatsApp and used photos of the company’s staff and company logo to deceive investors. CIS has confirmed that they have no affiliation with the group.
