17 February AtoZForex, Lagos – In the latest discovered stunt by fraudsters, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has discovered the cloning of another mega financial institution, Blackstone Group (HK) Ltd. The SFC discovered the wrongful use of Blackstone’s details by a an illegal firm, seeking to leverage on Blackstone's industry goodwill.
The clone company operates with the name Blackstone Financial Investment Co Ltd. It also lists the following details:
Address: 23/F B07 Hover Industrial Building, No. 26-38 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong.
Website: www.388hr.com
It should be noted that the stated address actually belongs to a secretarial company. The Hong Kong financial regulator has now emphasized that this firm is in no way associated with the genuine “Blackstone Group (HK) Ltd.”
About Blackstone
The Blackstone Group is actually the biggest alternative investment firm in the world. It is an American owned multinational private equity, investment banking, alternative asset management and financial services, headquartered in New York City. The firm’s core specialty is in private equity,credit and hedge fund investment strategies, as well as financial advisory services, like mergers and acquisitions (M&A), restructuring and reorganization, and private placements.
Recent Blackrock clone case
Besides this Blackstone clone warning case bears striking similarity with a recent warning by the SFC against “Blackrock Financial Co Ltd”, another clone of a genuine entity. In this case, the clone firm provided the following fake details: This clone operates via multiple websites listed as:
www.815048.com; www.078517.com; www.860119.com;
www.697338.com; www.211776.com; www.093944.com.
Also providing the address: 23/F B07 Hover Industrial Building, No. 26-38 Kwai Cheong Road, Kwai Chung, New Territories, Hong Kong, –the SFC says that this address belongs to a secretarial company.
The practice of cloning has become quite rampant in recent times, with many regulators taking a hard stance against the act. Hong Kong’s SFC is no different, as they constantly update their alert list with firms found guilty of this. The regulator has now warned the public from dealing with any of the above mentioned clone firms, as they are not licensed to carryout the services they claim to offer, and are most likely out to defraud individuals.
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