Overview
The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division received several complaints regarding Zenith Asset Investment Education Foundation (“Zenith”), whose website is assetoc.com. Zenith is a company claiming to offer high-quality education and access to an innovative “FINQbot AI system” that would provide investors personal market analysis. Zenith utilized a platform called CIRKOR with domains of clockbits.com and h5.cirkortrading.com as well as an app called CIRKOR. The domains for these entities do not appear to be available, however, CIRKOR may still be operating through a phone application under a different name.
CIRKOR Inc., purportedly created and run by Zenith, has a business registration with the State of Washington and obtained an MSB Registration with FinCEN. Although these registrations may be advertised by trading platforms, the information on the registrations is not verified and is not an endorsement, recommendation or certification of legitimacy.
The complaints received have many similarities to the DFI alert about the Quantum Prosperity Consortium Investment Education Foundation (“QPC”). Zenith and CIRKOR have also been named as potential scams in previous DFI alerts.
Investor Complaints and Allegations
One investor that filed a complaint about Zenith and CIRKOR reported that they saw a post on Facebook advertising investment education and stock trading tips. Once they clicked on the advertisement, they were taken to WhatsApp and added to a group with a “professor” named Arthur Frank and his assistant. For the first month, the investor reported that the lessons were primarily centered around stock trading and stated that they gained confidence in Zenith when they accurately predicted the price for a particular stock would increase. The WhatsApp Group introduced cryptocurrency trading and told investors they had the opportunity to be the first to test a new AI tool called the FINQbot. To test the new technology, investors were asked to create an account with CIRKOR, and they were provided “free” ZIA tokens. The investor also stated that Zenith and CIRKOR purportedly had investors sign contracts and solicited “donations” in exchange for becoming a shareholder and gaining unlimited access to the FINQbot. The investor had successful trades using the free tokens and when they attempted to withdraw their earnings, they were informed that they needed to invest at least $1,000 of their own funds from an outside source before doing so. The investor did not invest any additional funds and has been unable to withdraw from the platform.
These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
Advance Fee Fraud
This appears to be what is commonly called Advance Fee Fraud, which can take many forms. This also appears to be a common fraudulent scheme involving individuals claiming to be “professors” or “schools” use social media, such as WhatsApp, to guide or teach a group of investors on cryptocurrency trading strategies. The purported trading usually occurs on fraudulent trading platforms.
How To Avoid Becoming Victim of a Scam
DFI urges consumers to exercise extreme caution before responding to any solicitation offering investment or financial services. Investment professionals need to be licensed with DFI to offer investments to Washington residents. In addition, most investment products sold need to be registered with DFI. To check the licensing status and to find out if there are any complaints against an investment professional or investment product, please visit FINRA Brokercheck or contact the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, Securities Division at (360) 902-8760. If you live outside of Washington State, contact your state securities regulator.
If a consumer believes a person or company has violated state law or acted improperly regarding an investment product or service, they may file a complaint with the Securities Division.
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers