Symtomax

In January 2020, OffshoreAlert revealed that a British/Portuguese group called Symtomax was raising funds from investors by falsely claiming in offering and promotional material that it had been issued a license to manufacture and distribute medical cannabis by Portuguese regulator INFARMED, even including a fake license number in at least one document. We also disclosed that the group's main principals, Paul Segal and Minette Coetzee, a.k.a. Minette Compson, were serial fraudsters whose prior investment scams include Advalorem Value Asset Fund, which swindled four British pension funds out of £7.7 million, and Privilege Wealth, whose investors were defrauded of more than £40 million before it collapsed after being exposed by OffshoreAlert. Compson was also a disqualified company director in Gibraltar. Despite OffshoreAlert sending INFARMED proof of Symtomax's fraud, the regulator did not consider it to be a deal-breaker and, incredibly, issued the group a real license two years later.
Timeline
Symtomax Fake Photo
13

July

2021

Portugal’s cannabis regulator set to give license to British investment fraudsters

British serial investment fraudsters Paul Segal and Minette Coetzee who have been raising funds for their latest scheme, known as Symtomax, by pretending it has a license in Portugal to cultivate, sell, and export cannabis are about to be given a real one by the country’s regulator, INFARMED.

minette-compson-paul-segal
22

January

2020

EXPOSED: Symtomax Group’s fraudulent €12M Bond Offering

A €12 million bond offering by British nationals Minette Coetzee, a.k.a. Minette Compson, and Paul Segal via their Symtomax Group for a purported medical cannabis production facility in Portugal is fraudulent, OffshoreAlert can reveal. The scheme involves entities and individuals in the BVI, Canada, Dubai, England, Gibraltar, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Portugal, Scotland, Spain, South Africa, and Switzerland.

29

August

2019

British fraud firm Etaireia Investments goes into administration

British firm Etaireia Investments Plc has gone into administration – four years after being exposed by OffshoreAlert for perpetrating a property-based investment fraud involving firms and individuals in the BVI, England, Gibraltar, Isle of Man, Scotland, Seychelles, and Spain.

Brett Jolly Privilege Wealth
19

October

2016

EXPOSED: ‘Privilege Wealth’ global investment fraud

Notorious British swindler Brett Jolly is secretly behind a global investment fraud being perpetrated under the name ‘Privilege Wealth’, OffshoreAlert can reveal. The scheme involves a sprawling web of companies and operators in Bermuda, BVI, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Dubai, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Luxembourg, Panama, Seychelles, South Africa, Spain, UK, and USA.

brian-weal
30

June

2015

Belvedere associate Brian Weal’s latest fraud: Publicly-listed Etaireia Investments

OffshoreAlert’s continuing investigation into Belvedere Management Group and its affiliates has uncovered another ongoing investment fraud, this one involving British firm Etaireia Investments Plc, whose shares are listed on the London-based ICAP Securities & Derivatives Exchange and which has raised at least £1.5 million over the last 15 months.

22

May

2015

BUSTED: British & Irish expats who help Belvedere Group swindle investors

One day after new directors were appointed to ‘ensure’ that Cayman-domiciled Brighton SPC would be operated legally, the Fund illegally acquired a Gibraltar firm with bogus assets of $125 million, OffshoreAlert can reveal. The transfer allowed Belvedere and its accomplices in Britain, Dubai, Gibraltar, Spain and elsewhere to continue securities frauds involving firms listed on stock exchanges in Denmark, England and Germany.