Info For People Caught Out By The Banners Broker Scam

Hi Folks

I'm assuming that there are people within the WA Community who, like me, were unwittingly sucked into the Banners Broker Ponzi Scam a few years back. Hopefully we've all put it behind us as a bad experience.

For those who are still out of pocket, there is now hope of obtaining your money back.

Apologies if you were already aware of this information and have acted accordingly, but this post is for people like me who had given up hope and were not aware of recent developments.

I paid for my Banners Broker subscription via Debit Card and had my Chargeback Claim denied.

Different countries have different Chargeback regulations. Here in the UK, people who purchase a product or service in good faith which later turns out to be fraudulent are protected so long as they made their purchases via a Credit Card. The Card Provider has to issue a full refund. However, the same does not apply to Debit Card transactions, for which the Chargeback protection is only voluntary on the part of the Card Provider.

Banners Broker were closed down in 2014, and Joint Liquidators were appointed in the various countries where they operated.

The co-owners of Banners Broker - Chris Smith and Raj Dixit - were arrested on 9th December 2015 and charged with fraud. On 27th September 2017, the pair pleaded Guilty to charges under the Competition Act of running a Pyramid Scam and received a 'slap on the wrist' sentence of 2 years less 1 day in the Community and a $50,000 fine. Not bad for ripping people off to the tune of $93 Million.

On 9th December 2016, all Joint Liquidators relinquished their responsibilities to the Canadian Court appointed Liquidator, who's contact details are as follows:

msi Spergel inc. , 505 Consumers Road, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, M2J 4V8, Canada
Attn: Frieda Kanaris
http://www.spergel.ca/banners
E-mail: bannersbrokerinternational@spergel.ca
Tel: 001 416 498 4313

People who have successfully claimed via national Receivers have had their joining fees and - if applicable - package upgrade fees refunded, although not any money their memberships generated in terms of 'earnings', the latter quite correctly IMHO.

You will recall that earnings shown in e-wallets such as SolidTrustPay were reversed by Banners Broker with all sorts of excuses that it was a 'technical glitch' and reassurances to 'keep the faith' as it was 'all being sorted'. etc.

Yesterday, I received the following e-mail from the Canadian Receivers by way of reply to my enquiry:

"Dear Richard, as the Canadian Receiver, we have not yet received Court approval with the claims form or the claims process to be used in the Canadian proceedings. We have noted your contact information and will update you accordingly. Unfortunately, we cannot provide anything further at this time nor how long the process will take.
Regards
msi Spergel inc., court-appointed receiver of Banners Broker International Limited
Frieda Kanaris | Senior Administrator - Corporate Insolvency"

So, although it's some way down the road still, this gives hope to those of us for whom this issue is as yet unresolved - good luck with your claims.

Have a prosperous and productive day, everybody :-)

Rich