Somerset Offshore Asset Management Daniel Karlson (CEO) Arthur Reynolds (Vice President Private Clients) David Davies (Client Liaison Officer) After investing USD5000 with them for buying NVIDIA Shares in January 2016, they reported after 6 months that they had sold the shares at a huge profit. Upon requesting that the send me the proceeds, they came up all kinds of caveats why the proceeds cannot be sent to me. Shenzhen Futian District

1.      During January 2016 I started with negotiations with Somerset Offshore Asset Management for buying Nvidia Shares – the name of the contact person which, unfortunately I cannot recall.[Nvidia manufactures powerful and high speed graphical cards used for computer games as well as complex and high speed computations and is a very successful and fast growing company with contracts related to the future driverless vehicles and the like].

2.      During January 2016 I opened a Trading Account with them. 

3.      On the 14th January 2016 I transferred USD 5,000 to an account given as Safenet Group Solutions Limited in China with regards to the supposed buying of 167 Nvidia Shares at USD 29.69 per share on my behalf  and on 15th January 2016 I got confirmation from a Ms Janice Chong that the shares have been bought.  Mr. Jack Wong was involved in this.

4.      During June 2016 I was sent a notice by Ms. Janice Chong of SOAM that the 167 Nvidia Shares were sold at a unit price of USD47.00, totaling USD7,849.00.  Upon this I requested them on the 2nd June 2016 that the proceeds, less commission of USD78.49, be sent to me, and for this I provided them with my bank account details.  However, this never transpired.

5.      On the 28th June 2016 I got another document from Ms. Janice Chong of SOAM to the effect that the 167 Nvidia shares had (again) been sold at a unit price of USD46.03, totaling USD7,687.01.  In this regard I queried the fact that two different versions of “selling the shares” were reported, but got no answer from them.  I also urged them again to transfer the proceeds to my bank account, but there was no response from them.

6.      Following that I wrote numerous e-mails to their advisory office in Shenzhen prompting them for the payment, but it was only during November 2016 that someone, I think it was a Mr. Jonathan Watson, contacted me and undertook to resolve the matter.  I also sent him all the applicable documents.

7.      On the 12th of December 2016 I got notice from Janice Chong that now the 167 Nvidia Shares have been sold (again!) at a unit price of USD 89.59 per share and that the net amount of USD 14,811.91 was due to me.

8.      Upon requesting that the proceeds be sent to me, I was requested to pay USD5,000 for Transfer Insurance (TI). Upon their demand the funds had to be paid to an account of Blackheath Solutions Ltd. In Malaysia of which the details are included in set of documents attached hereto.  I duly paid this on 14 December 2016. 

9.      Upon insisting that the funds due to me then be transferred to my account I was informed by a Mr. Albert Moss during January 2017 that there was a problem with my identity and that in order to resolve it I had to pay another USD5000 for a Personal Identification Clearance Certificate (PICC), which I subsequently paid into the account of Blackheath Solutions in Malaysia.

10.   After another series of queries from my side re the pay-out and repatriation of funds to South Africa, I was eventually contacted by their mr. Albert Moss during April 2017, informing me that due to the very strict measures implemented by the USA w.r.t. money laundering, I was obliged to pay another USD5000 to procure an Anti Money Laundering Certificate (AMLC), which I subsequently paid into the account of Blackheath Solutions Ltd. in Malaysia.

11.   I was also informed that in order for the funds to be repatriated to South Africa, it had to be channeled via an Intermediary Bank in the USA, and for this a fee of USD 5000 was required, which I also paid into the account of Blackheath Solutions Ltd in Malaysia. 

12.   I was also advised that the funds associated with the TI, PICC, AMLC and Intermediary Bank Fee would be refunded. 

13.   On the 22nd May 2017 I sent a registered letter to Somerset Offshore Asset Management’s headquarters in Japan with all the applicable detail to that date, but never got an answer.

14.   Upon numerous queries concerning the shares proceeds and refundable amounts were never transferred, I eventually got a call from their mr. Jonathan Watson during June 2017 informing me that the funds had been sent by their bank (Blackheath Solutions Ltd. In Malaysia), but that due to the very stringent anti-money laundering measures applied by the USA, the intermediary bank in the USA had rejected the transfer.

15.   Mr. Watson then noted that there was a work-around and instrument which had been successfully used during the economic collapse of 2008 to move funds, called a Joint Emergency Fund (JEF)and that if I wanted to ensure that the funds would get released and get through I would have to buy into this fund, and that USD3,500 was required for this.  At that stage my funds had virtually been totally depleated and I could only contribute USD1000, which I duly paid.

16.   More months went by and nothing was heard or seen from them until during October 2017 when a mr. Robert Sellers (claiming to be from Somerset Offshore Asset Management’s headquarters in Tokyo Japan) called me, claiming to be one of their auditors and stating that he had picked up my file and had determined that there had been some discrepancies, but that it was his responsibility to resolve all issues.  He also mentioned that it would take a while for him to work through all the detail and come up with a solution.

17.   About a week afterwards Mr. Sellers came back with the “good news” that now the 167 Nvidia shares could be sold (again for the 3rd time!) at a handsome price of USD 198,68 per share, yielding a total of USD33.179,56! However, he strongly recommended that the proceeds be used to invest in 5700 Evoqua Water Technology shares at USD6.00 per share, as those shares were destined to speedily increase in value within a few weeks, and that in order to buy into it, I needed to contribute an additional amount of USD1020.44. I checked out Evoqua Water Technology’s detail and verified that it was a respectable company and that their shares were really increasing in value at an appreciable tempo. 

18.   Mr. Sellers also reminded that I was still owing the remaining USD2,500 for the JEF, but that his company would sponsor me with USD1,000 to make up the total amount of USD3,500 required for buying into the JEF.  On 13 October 2017 I paid over the remaining USD1,500 associated with the JEF.

19.   I objected to Mr. Sellers that I was not interested in the Evoqua Shares and that I urgently needed the money owed to me, but I was informed by Mr. Sellers that there would be considerable obstacles to repatriate the proceeds from the Nvidia shares to South Africa, given the previous “difficulties” involved; and that it would be better to start with a clean slate with the Evoqua shares.  After various deliberations and heated debates I eventually agreed and then paid over the USD1,020.44 in the account of Blackheath Solution Ltd. on 26 October 2017.

20.   Subsequent to that I could not get hold of anyone at Somerset Offshore Asset Management and when phoning the “office” in Tokyo, the phone would only ring once and then cut off.