Atlantic Finance Partners Added to NZ FMA's Warning List

It’s a Monday, and that means a regulator has added another firm to its warning list. On this occasion it’s New Zealand’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the firm is called Atlantic Finance Partners.

According to the regulator, a member of the great, rugby-loving New Zealand public told authorities that someone from the company had cold-called them.

The person calling had, the Kiwi said, attempted to sell him shares. But, according to the FMA, the shares were bogus and the credentials the person on the phone provided were false.

Atlantic Finance Partners - a typical scam

On its website, Atlantic Finance Partners claims to be based on the 23rd floor of 165 Broadway in New York City.

By a massive coincidence, at that same address, and on the very same 23rd floor, is a company offering ‘virtual offices’ for companies to rent. To put that in non-corp speak, you can pay someone there a bit of money to pretend you have an office at what would otherwise be a very expensive address.

Even then, however, Atlantic Finance Partners is not listed as having an office at the location.

The company’s website is filled with other nonsensical information and bears many of the hallmarks of a scam.

For instance, it doesn’t list any information as to who works for the company or who is in senior management positions.

Nor does it really give a clear indication as to what it actually does. It lists audit, consulting and M&A services but then, one would have to ask, why is it trying to sell people shares if it provides those services?

All in all, a boring scheme. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again - scammers really are an unimaginative bunch. Even if the end result, ripping people off, is the same, they should come up with a new way of doing it.

But before that can happen, expect a lot more Atlantic Finance Partners to crop up and an equal number of warnings from the FMA and its fellow regulators.