Advice firm shut down after promoting fund warned against in UK, New Zealand, US

Unregulated adviser Amey Finance Academy ltd, which claimed to have FCA authorisation and offered advice to help people invest in cryptocurrency schemes, has been shut down following a probe by the UK's Insolvency Service.

The company was wound-up at the High Court in London on Tuesday 30 April.

In a statement on 13 May, the Insolvency Services said the company had promoted cryptocurrency schemes run by other companies such as HyperFund which raised more than $1.7bn from investors worldwide.

Warnings about HyperFund were issued in the UK and New Zealand, with the company also investigated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission who charged its founder with fraud in January 2024.

The company’s sole director and shareholder Desmond Amey, 42, who described himself as a wealth creation expert, had offered assurances to consumers that their cryptocurrency investments were solid.

However, complaints were made that consumers lost money in investment opportunities and Amey Finance Academy was classified by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as providing financial services or products in the UK without its authorisation.

Mark George, chief investigator at the Insolvency Service, said: "Desmond Amey used Amey Finance Academy to recklessly persuade individuals to invest in cryptocurrency schemes and mislead them about the risks of doing so.

"His claims to offer a financial education and concierge service will be of no comfort to customers who lost their money in investments he actively encouraged.

"The failure to deliver adequate accounting records and a general lack of transparency shown has prevented the Insolvency Service from establishing the true extent of the company’s activities, its assets and liabilities, or the use of £5 million which passed through the company’s bank account between October 2019 and March 2022.

"The public deserve protection from companies trading in an opaque and objectionable manner which is why we applied to have Amey Finance Academy shut down."

Amey Finance Academy was set up in December 2018, declaring on social media that it was “an established and successful independent consultancy providing a plethora of financial services”.

The company also claimed to run an industry-leading education academy.

However, Amey made misrepresentations, assuring one customer who went on to lose all the money they invested that their investment would not drop below 90%.

In WhatsApp messages seen by Insolvency Service investigators, Amey told another customer the investments were “100 certy” and to “trust me bro”.

In interviews, Amey provided contradictory information about his company’s relationship with HyperFund and said he only used the Amey Finance Academy business bank account to help people buying cryptocurrency via a separate company called Bleuguava.

His failure to provide up-to-date accounting records meant the Insolvency Service could not establish the true relationship between Amey Finance Academy and HyperFund or Bleuguava.

Further investigations by the Insolvency Service showed that Amey’s email signature stated he was managing director of Amey Commercial Finance Ltd which was dissolved in 2017.

His email signature also incorrectly said he was authorised and regulated by the FCA, who issued a warning in July 2022 that his company was unauthorised and targeting people in the UK.

Amey released a video YouTube in October 2023 implying that he still had a presence at 1 Canada Square at Canary Wharf in London. In reality, he had been evicted for failing to pay rent in January of that year.

Amey Finance Academy subsequently failed to register an address with Companies House to receive official correspondence.