Validus

May 17, 2024

Did you transfer funds to Validus?

Validus – A suspected Ponzi scheme which promised high returns but has left people unable to access their money.

Depending on how you ‘invested’ there could be a way to recover your losses.

What is Validus?

Validus is a cryptocurrency scheme that has attracted significant attention and regulatory action in recent years.

Reportedly founded by former promoters of the infamous OneCoin scam, Validus positioned itself as a forex training platform.

It operated through a multi-level marketing (MLM) model, which incentivised investors to bring in new members.

How did it work?

Validus used a forex training platform as a front to attract investors, especially young people, via social media and messaging apps.

Investors were asked to contribute substantial amounts of cryptocurrency, often up to $10,000, with the promise of a 300% return. This promise was highly unrealistic and is a red flag typical of Ponzi schemes.

Some clients have told us they were invited to attend conferences in Dubai and promised high returns in 60 weeks.

The scheme functioned by using the investments from new participants to pay returns to earlier investors, creating an illusion of profitability and success.

In 2021, Validus acquired another collapsed Ponzi scheme called AuLives. It’s thought this was primarily to access its investor database. The company allegedly claimed massive growth in 2022, which further raised suspicions among financial regulators and the public.

What happened to Validus?

By April 2023, it was reported that Validus had disabled withdrawals under the pretext of system upgrades, but these withdrawals never resumed. This led widespread concern among investors who could no longer access their funds.

Warnings about Validus

Regulatory authorities from several countries have issued warnings and taken actions against Validus.

Authorities in Belgium were the first to raise concerns about Validus’s training and MLM practices in December 2022.

In early 2023 the Financial Markets Authority in New Zealand issued a stop order against Validus. Highlighting that the company was operating without authorization and was in breach of financial markets legislation​​.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority also clarified in December 2023 that Validus was not licensed to operate in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

Despite these warnings, Validus continued to operate and attract new investors until its eventual collapse.

What to Do if You Invested in Validus

If you have invested in Validus there are steps you can take to try to recover your funds.

If you made your transactions through a UK bank account or e-money institute such as Revolut you may be able to get your money back from them.

Banks have a general duty of care to protect their customers from fraud and unauthorised transactions.

This duty includes monitoring transactions for unusual activity and issuing customer warnings. If they failed to do this or if it was insufficient you could have grounds to make a claim.

You will probably need to prove that any warnings given were insufficient.

The FCA requires banks to take reasonable steps to ensure that customers are aware of the risks of fraud and to act fairly and promptly in the event of a fraud claim.

If you have been a victim of Validus – the first step would be to report it to your bank as soon as possible. If you are unhappy with their response you can take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Need some claims advice? Talk to Compensation Adviser.

There are no guarantees you’ll be able to get your money back from your bank but our initial assessment can tell you if we think you may have a case.

No obligation to use our service.

If you do want to use our claims service to take care of the claim for you – our success fee is 15%+VAT.

You’ll only pay our success fee if we win your case. And our success fee is capped so you won’t pay more than £7,500 + VAT. Cancellation fees may apply.

Simply call our office or fill in the form to arrange a chat.

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