GTL Tradeup, a Sydney derivatives broker whose director has been linked to a multimillion-dollar Italian fraud case, has collapsed, owing clients more than $3 million

Clients owed millions after derivatives broker GTL Tradeup collapses

October 2, 2013

Gareth Hutchens

GTL Tradeup, a Sydney derivatives broker whose director has been linked to a multimillion-dollar Italian fraud case, has collapsed, owing clients more than $3 million. About 300 clients in Australia, New Zealand and China are believed to be affected. The clients were informed via email last week of the decision to go into liquidation. Corporate insolvency firm CRS Warner Kugel has been appointed liquidator. The GTL director who has allegedly been linked by Italian media to a $36 million fraud case – Mahmood Riaz – is in Australia and has been working with liquidators.Liquidators Anthony Warner and Steven Kugel say the exact amount of money and the number of clients affected by the liquidation have not been determined.

”We’re taking steps to secure the books and records today,” Mr Warner said.

He said Mr Riaz had explained that GTL Tradeup sent nearly $1 million in client money to a ”liquidity provider” in Dubai a few months ago, and that this transaction contributed to GTL’s collapse.

Mr Warner said another GTL-linked company, Global Tradewaves, was also in liquidation.

A meeting of GTL Tradeup creditors is likely to be held next week.

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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