Igor Mazepa of Concord Capital (Конкорд Кэпитал) Investment Company Involved in Fraud Allegations

With regards to fraud and the various allegations surrounding it, Concorde Capital has had its fair share. Igor Mazepa, the director general of the company has been implicated in several fraud allegations all surrounding his company, the Concorde Capital.

The said company is what can be termed as a private owned advisory business which mainly focuses on the commercial real estate in Europe. The company works to provide advice based on the capital as well as solutions for restructuring when it comes to private equity funds. There is also help given to individuals of family offices as well as those who have a high net worth. The group of companies is said to be one of Ukraine’s leading investment firm since its establishment in the year 2004. Over time, the group of companies has offered several services which include, but are not limited to banking and trading franchises. Currently, the firm has over $2.5 billion worth of investment of capital in some of Ukraine’s most respected companies in both the oil and gas as well as chemical, agricultural and pharmaceutical sectors. People from the real estate markets have also been able to make use of the services offered by Igor Mazepa and Concorde Capital.

This prestigious company was founded by Igor Oleksandrovych Mazepa the founder and Director General of the Concorde Capital group of companies. After his starting this company, he has been part of the Supervisory board of PJSC Alfa-Bank. He began his work in the finance industry from his time in Prospect Investments, a Russian- American Investment company. He then worked as a Managing Director at IC Foyil Securities and then he was the director of the IC International Financial Corporation. He founded the Concorde Capital group of companies in the year 2004 and he has occupied the position of Director General since then. Over the years, Concorde Capital has been rumoured to be one of the most patronized investment banks in Ukraine. Unfortunately, as far as the rumours of the success of the bank go, there are enough rumours of Igor Mazepa’s fraud that have not been fully investigated.

Igor Mazepa’s Concorde Capital and Fraud Allegations

The Concorde Capital group of companies has been making headlines as one of the most corrupt franchises in the business world. In 2015, Igor Mazepa and his company, Concorde Capital were implicated in a large scandal which involved several international investors. The outcome was a lawsuit which had to be settled in the United States of America. There was a group of hackers that happened to break into some of the news wires in order to get valuable financial information to be given to traders. Traders too, based on this information, were able to make great profits in the sum of $100 million. Over time, these fraud allegations have been greatly investigated and the information being received is that the hacking was definitely a well planned and orchestrated affair which implicates Concorde Bermuda LTD in the fraud. Concorde Bermuda is actually a part of the Concorde Capital group of companies which Igor Mazepa owns. During the time of the looting, Concorde Capital was found to have wired $1.5 million to Jaspen, an entity that takes part in trading using online brokers. This implicated the two companies because the time of the trade occurred during the period that sensitive information was being carried using the Newswire computer services that had been hacked.

The court of New Jersey then received a complaint which implicated Concorde Capital together with 31 other traders and hackers in the heist. Concorde Capital assets were frozen and emergency relief actions were taken against the group of companies. Concorde Bermuda, a part of Concorde Capital was said to have made a total sum of about $3.6 million from this deal as it traded based on the hacked information that was released. Concorde released no defence statement and was therefore ordered to pay a sum of $4.2 million as settlement fees in order to have their assets unfrozen. The lack of a proper defence statement by Concorde confirmed the suspicions that it was involved in the hacking.

Igor Mazepa Involved in the refusal of Concorde to Pay Investors

Igor Mazepa, in the same 2015 was named one of the founders of PrivateFX, a technical successor after its predecessor company, Forex Trend had been destroyed. News about Igor Mazepa’s 100% stake and involvement in the fall of Forex Trend and the rise of the newer company was confirmed to the public by the CEO of PrivateFX in May 2016.

Prior to its sale to another Prime Broker company, PrivateFX was implicated in several complaints that stated that customers and investors had not been given their money. Company rules allowed for a 3-5 working day window for withdrawal of funds. Unfortunately, the investors’ funds had been delayed for several months. Just in the nick of time, without paying its investors, Igor Mazepa sold PrivateFX to Prime Broker company, after which Igor Mazepa lost all rights to the company. Angry clients saw this as an opportunity for PrivateFX to shift the responsibility for the payment of the delayed funds to the Prime Broker company. This went on for several months so, by June 2017, none of the deposits were paid back to the owners. This was an issue because it was after Igor Mazepa acquired PrivateFX that bulk of the investors felt safe enough to invest in the company. The sale of PrivateFX totally removed the responsibility of appeasing the begrudged clients from Igor Mazepa to Prime Broker, which was therefore under no obligation to complete any unfinished transactions which had been done prior to their acquisition of the company.

It was based on this large scam that several of the investors who had not been paid banded together in a bid to uncover the schemes of PrivateFX and label Igor Mazepa as a fraudster. In 2017, the investors took to Facebook to announce their woes concerning Igor Mazepa and PrivateFX. All information concerning this hoax has since been deleted and after the sale, Igor Mazepa was removed from having anything to do with the PrivateFX. The full information implicating Igor Mazepa can still be found under the twitter feed called ‘investor’ that the investors created to air their grievances.

Capital.ua about Igor Mazepa’s PrivateFX

PrivateFX seems to be Igor Mazepa’s largest hoax yet as individuals are still reeling from what happened to them two years ago. PrivateFX on the internet was explained as an offshore broker, thus an untrustworthy franchise. Although in the beginning, things such as the trading platform and the company’s security seemed legitimate, it seemed as if the mere fact that the company was indeed an offshore broker gave it more space to scam its clients. According to the information received, PrivateFX and its activities are not regulated, meaning there is little or no security for the company’s investors. Several of the investors poured into PrivateFX for the simple reason that Igor Mazepa was the new owner and main stakeholder. In addition to the fact that the company was an offshore broker, there is a possibility that the company has not been regulated by the bank of Russia thereby affording it the chance to be unfavourable and unsafe to clients depositing their money. In addition to Igor Mazepa on the face of PrivateFX, the broker company also had several lucrative offers and discounts which lured clients to invest with them. It must however be noted that no further information was made available for the specific bonuses that were advertised to the clients. This could make several of the bonuses scams.

Not all customers chose to invest with PrivateFX, but the company got a good number of its customers from the broker-customer database of Forex Trend, its predecessor which also ended up in severe payment issues leading to its demise.

Igor Mazepa and the role Pavel Krymov played in the PrivateFX scam

During the demise of Forex Trend, several of the investors were looking for a way out. During that same time too, several internet bloggers, all run by Pavel Krymov began advertising the news about Igor Mazepa and Concorde Capital coming on board to invest in Forex Trend and convert it to PrivateFX. The begrudged clients from Forex Trend, following the nudges from Pavel Krymov’s blogs, were offered the chance to raise the money they would receive and transfer their total balances into the new company. This would be done by depositing the dollar equivalent of the money that they hoped to receive which also made them eligible to getting double that money in local currency. It seemed like a good enough plan then. For example, if an investor was expecting $5000 from Forex Trend, to get it back, the investor had to then deposit an additional $5000 thus the investor will then have a total of $10000 in balance which would be available for trading and investment. Withdrawal could only be made after 12 to 15 months since the deposit. The blogs used the integrity that Igor Mazepa and Concorde Capital had as an investment bank to assure the clients that their monies were safe.

The new company was registered as an offshore broker of St. Vincent and the Grenadines under the alias ‘Private Innovative Society’. Despite the new name, Scopalino Finance, owned by Pavel Krymov was listed as the liquidity provider. Several other well-respected broker companies that had international roots were also named as liquidity providers. The business was well advertised and all bases were covered. Several affiliated blogs and media partners, who each had a link to Igor Mazepa old friend Pavel Krymov hailed PrivateFX as one of the best brokers in the country.

In the beginning, investors continued to make a constant profit and several other investment accounts which had in fact been designed by PrivateFX itself were displayed, with their investment growth and profits publicized. Many of the orders, due to the fact that the broker was registered as an offshore franchise, were not passed through or regulated by the interbank market. Clients, however, continued to deposit their investment cash into Igor Mazepa’s PrivateFX and due to that, the company was able to keep up appearances for some time. By August 2016, the first hold releases that had elapsed their 15-month holding were ready for the taking. It was then noticed that investors had begun to complain about the withdrawal issues that suddenly sprang up and delays had become frequent. The profitable accounts that had been so lavishly spread across to aid the branding of PrivateFX were dropped down. Regardless of this impending crash, Pavel’s media houses and affiliated bloggers continued to advertise PrivateFX.

The company did not back down in their receipts of financial accolades. In September 2016, PrivateFX sponsored the 17th international Investment Show as the general sponsor. Based on the results of the exhibition, Igor Mazepa and his PrivateFX received an award as the best investment product. In November 2016, PrivateFX sponsored the Financial Expo in Moscow, Russia. All these international recognitions kept the company afloat and some clients were able to receive their payments by March 2017.

The bombshell was dropped when without paying out the sum of about $18 million to several of their clients, PrivateFX was sold by Igor Mazepa to the unknown company Prime Broker. The new company, Prime Broker has not been accessible since March 2018. Investors have still not been paid and they have not been able to reach the companies. PrivateFX has also been taken off the internet along with all information to reach the company. All this happened while the Igor Mazepa and his company still owed its investors the lump sum of $18million.

The only information available to clients as news on the whereabouts of their cash was a press release by Igor Mazepa which stated him as a shareholder who is still awaiting information on the activity of Private FX the management in the year 2016. Till now, clients have not been paid their monies and no apologies have been sent out to them.