- The FSCA alleges that IndiBerrys & Company is carrying out an unregistered business and misrepresenting the legal identity of Peter Berry Trust Services, which denying the relevance of
- The regulator said IndiBerrys & Company is not registered with any regulator under any financial sector law.
- Indiberries & Co.'s website also has a link to another investment scheme called Bonsai Ranch that appears to have a similar modus operandi.
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The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) has issued a public warning against Berry investment schemes that promise unrealistic returns of as much as 45.1% per month.
Regulators warned against doing business with IndiBerrys & Co. The company's website states that Indie Berries & Company is a platform that facilitates investment in the businesses of more than 300 “evaluated and approved” berry farmers across seven countries. The company claims that individuals can invest in these farmer activities with a “committed interest rate of 45.1% per month.”
“The FSCA has received information that Indie Berry's & Co. is carrying on an unregistered business and is misrepresenting itself as a corporate representative of Peter Berry Trust Services,” the regulator said in a statement on Thursday. and added the following:
FSCA is concerned that the monthly income provided to the general SA population is unrealistic.
Indiberries & Co uses introductions and videos on social media platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and Facebook to encourage the public to participate in its berry cultivation investment plans. Clicking on the “Contact Us” tab on the website links to a Facebook page with the same name. It's filled with wads of cash and photos of happy people posing with what appears to be newly purchased vehicles.
Indiberries & Co's Facebook page describes the company as an investment management company and claims to have 300,000 active investors. He also touts impressive returns in just two weeks, with one post encouraging people to start investing with R1,000, promising he will receive R2,347 within 30 days.
fruity claim
Other posts encourage people to “invest R5,000 and earn R11,251 in 14 days,” gradually increasing the amount invested to R1 million, with investors earning R2.8 million in just seven days. The page claims you can receive more than Rand.
The FSCA said that IndiBerrys & Company is not authorized by the FSCA in relation to any financial sector law. It added that it had confirmed that the Peter Berry Trust had no connection to Indie Berry's and Company and had not given permission to use its details.
“Without commenting on the business of IndiBerrys & Company, the FSCA notes that it requires FSCA authorization to provide financial products and services in SA,” the regulator said, adding that the Berry Investment Scheme It added that it had not received any comment.
News24 was unable to find contact details on Indiberries & Co's website or Facebook page. Clicking on the “Contact Us” tab on the login page automatically opened another Facebook page called “Bonsai Ranch,” which appeared to have a similar modus operandi as Indiberries & Co..
Bonsai Ranch's Facebook page claims to be a platform where people can directly invest in bonsai farmers in eight countries, but only four countries are mentioned in posts toward the bottom of the page.
“Bonsai Ranch is a platform that connects you with vetted and verified bonsai farmers in the United States, South Africa, Australia, and Nigeria,” the Facebook page states. “By investing directly with these farmers, you can earn up to 32.3% of your investment every month, starting from R500.”
The page, which is closing in on 300,000 investors, also features similar photos of people in apparently newly purchased cars, with one photo captioned with the caption, “Congratulations on your purchase. Thank you for investing R10,000 in our company,” the caption reads.
Additionally, a website link on Bonsai Ranch's Facebook page links to what appears to be an e-commerce site based in Florida, USA.
The site doesn't appear to sell bonsai, but instead lists a variety of products, from sun hats with mosquito nets to vacuum cleaner filters to water purifiers and aquarium water pumps. There is.
At the time of publication, an email sent to the Bonsai Ranch website, which appears to be based in the United States, had not yet been answered.