Dubai firm vanishes over night, Indian investors face massive loss
Dubai's Gulf First Commercial Brokers has duped Indian investors, primarily from Kerala, in a forex trading scam, disappearing overnight with crores of rupees. The police have launched an investigation after finding empty offices and no trace of the company, which also operated through an unauthorized platform, Sigma-One Capital.
Dubai News: A surprising case has emerged from Dubai. Here a brokerage company "Gulf First Commercial Brokers" suddenly disappeared. This company collected crores of rupees from hundreds of investors in the name of investing in foreign currency (forex) and then suddenly left the office empty overnight.
According to media reports, the company had opened two offices in the Capital Golden Tower in Dubai's Business Bay area. There were about 40 employees working here, whose job was to convince people to invest in forex trading through phone calls. Investors who relied on the calls were promised 'safe and huge returns'. But when the truth came out, only empty chairs, broken wiring and dust-covered floors were found.
Huge losses for Kerala's investors
The biggest impact of this fraud was on Indian investors, especially those associated with Kerala. Two brothers named Mohammed and Fayaz Poyyal had invested about $ 75,000 (about Rs 62 lakh) in this company. Mohammad said that when he himself went to the company's office to find out the truth, no one was found there. "We called every contact number, but there was no response. It was as if this company never existed."
Investment also through "Sigma-One Capital"
Another Indian investor, Sanjeev, informed that the company also made investments through an online platform "Sigma-One Capital". But it later emerged that the platform was not authorised by any official financial institution.
Police have registered a case
Dubai Police has now filed a complaint against both "Gulf First Commercial Brokers" and "Sigma-One Capital" and the investigation has already begun. The investigation revealed that "Sigma-One Capital" had shown itself to be registered in Saint Lucia (Caribbean island) and had its office in Musalla Tower in Bur Dubai.
But when officials reached there, no such office was found to exist. Also, this company neither had any license from the DFSA (Dubai Financial Services Authority) nor the SCA (Securities and Commodities Authority).
Such frauds have come to the fore before
The incident bears a striking resemblance to the previous fake investment scams in Dubai such as "DTFX" and "EVM Prime". In these cases too, investors were lured with lucrative returns through cold calls. Some people invested by borrowing from credit cards, while some lost their entire savings.
Now the only option left for these investors is to seek justice from the police and government agencies. They are continuously lodging complaints and demanding strict action against the culprits.