The Washington State Department of Financial Institutions (DFI), Securities Division has received a complaint from a Washington resident regarding Elite Investment Capitals (“Elite”), a website claiming to be a registered investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The website lists various investment opportunities including cryptocurrency investments.
The investor met a stranger online through Facebook who went by the name Celine Ava and who was purportedly a broker for Elite. Celine convinced the investor to invest in cryptocurrency through the Elite platform. After investing into the platform, the investor almost immediately saw gains in their account. After the initial investment, the investor was able to withdraw funds from their account and the investor continued to invest. The total amount invested was $154,500. The investor’s account purportedly grew to over $600,000 and the investor was ready to withdraw their funds. When the investor requested to withdraw funds from their account, Elite told the investor that they would need to pay 15% in taxes prior to receiving their funds. Even after paying $80,000 in fees, the investor was still unable to withdraw the profits from their Elite account. These allegations have not been verified by DFI.
The investor sent their cryptocurrency investments to the following Elite wallet addresses:
- bc1q95k8rzhml53ap7d6jmy6ql6s2axs3yvus70fcp
- bc1qvducwdnj4drkrv2k0yhvukhm4jaayf4ct08a8c
- 15aWM9LjXQB17aWvEDLioEy8Z4v7yHyHsA
This appears to be what is commonly called “Advance Fee Fraud”, which can take many forms. It also appears to be a Pig Butchering Scheme.
This complaint contained several other red flags indicating fraud (which have also not been verified by DFI), including:
- Elite’s claim to be a registered investment advisor with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) could not be confirmed on the SEC website.
- Elite’s website lists an office address in London, England, however the map shown on the website is a map of New York.
- Certain links on Elite’s website are broken and do not work.
- Elite also claims to be a member of NYSE, FINRA, SIPC, NSCC, DTC, OCC, NFA & CME and claims to be under the NFA’s regulatory oversight, which could not be confirmed on the NFA website.
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 (https://brokercheck.finra.org) 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 (https://www.nasaa.org/contact-your-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 formal complaint with the Securities Division (https://dfi.wa.gov/consumers/file-complaint/investor-complaint).
Additional Resources
Virtual Currency, Cryptocurrency, and Digital Assets Information for Consumers