NEW YORK, Nov 13 (Reuters) - One might think that after
Madoff, Stanford and other Ponzi-like schemes, big banks would
be more careful about the money managers they do business with
-- especially people running highly speculative investment
opportunities.
But it appears not everyone at the global banking giant
HSBC <HSBA.L> got the message.
Consider the case of Dividium Capital, a now-defunct
investment fund that was registered in the Isle of Man, an
offshore banking haven located in the Irish Sea. Dividium,
which operated out of Switzerland, promised investors high
double-digit returns from the sale of gold certificates backed
by an investment in a Russian gold mine project.
HSBC had been a primary depositary bank for the fund. Some
of Dividium's investors say their money was wired to bank
accounts that the fund maintained at an HSBC branch in the Isle
of Man.
Dividium billed itself as an "international investment
firm, which generates its returns on the basis of ethical
principles with the objective of generating the best possible
yield for the person and investor," according to some of its
marketing literature.
