Woman who lost R458,000 with Banxso shares nightmare story

A South African woman lost R458,000 investing in the Banxso scheme, which has since had its licence to operate withdrawn and a hold placed on seven of its bank accounts. 

Bafana Bafana-sponsor Banxso has been under fire for running and benefiting from deepfake ads featuring Elon Musk, Johann Rupert, and Nicky Oppenheimer. 

These ads have allegedly been used to lure individuals to Banxso’s website, where they give the company their contact details. 

Manuel de Andrade, Banxso’s chief operating officer, has stated that the company has no connection to the adverts and claimed it was a victim of hacking.

The Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) began investigating the company in April 2024 for possible contraventions of financial sector laws following complaints regarding Banxso’s conduct. 

This followed reports that Banxso appeared to be profiting from ‘deepfake’ adverts, which promised profits of up to R300,000 a month from an investment of R4,700.

On 16 October 2024, the FSCA provisionally withdrew the company’s licence to operate following preliminary findings. The investigation is not yet complete.

“The FSCA has taken this step because it is concerned that there may be a risk of harm to clients and/or the general public if Banxso continues its operations,” the regulator said. 

“The provisional withdrawal is based on preliminary investigation findings regarding the activities of Banxso and its possible association with the Immediate Matrix deepfake advertisements.”

Regulators are also concerned about the aggressive and pressurised sales techniques used by Banxso agents when selling financial products to clients. 

The FSCA also flagged promises of unrealistic returns and a failure to conduct the required risk and needs analyses prior to directing clients towards specific products. 

This is a provisional withdrawal of Banxso’s license based on provisional investigation findings. Once the investigation is finalised, the FSCA will consider it and Banxso’s submissions.  

In the interim, the regulator said Banxso had been provided with an opportunity to provide reasons for the possible lifting of the provisional withdrawal. 

How one woman lost R458,000

A Cape Town resident, Claire*, recently detailed how she invested R458,000 only to find out her account had been closed and the money taken. 

Claire encountered Banxso while doing research on investing in the stock market and trading during a quiet period at work. 

She explained to Biznews that she was doing research on YouTube when she went onto Facebook and saw an advertisement with a video of Elon Musk explaining how one could make money trading on Banxso’s platform. 

After clicking on the ad, Claire filled in her details on Banxso’s website and received a call five minutes later from a ‘Mr Abrahams’. 

“I got a call within five minutes from Mr Abrahams, and within ten minutes, he had convinced me to invest on this platform.” 

Mr Abrahams explained that the people on the platform who would teach you how to trade and make money were industry experts and had been trading for over two decades. 

“He told me there was zero chance of loss because they had been doing this forever.” 

Claire was initially circumspect and doubted whether Mr Abrahams could be trusted, but the promise of a R1,500 bonus on her initial investment of R4,500 won her over. 

Mr Abrahams said she would be given a success manager who would “hold her hand” during the trading process and teach her everything she needed to know about trading. 

A man called Ollie phoned her the next day and introduced himself as her success manager. 

“Ollie said all I needed to do was trust him, and he would help me trade. He asked me to put in R50,000 more because R5,000 was too small of an amount to generate any serious returns.” 

After Ollie proved his trading skills, generating thousands of rands in profit with the initial R5,000, Claire invested R50,000. 

Ollie continued to help Claire generate profits, and everything appeared to be going fine until one day, when he presented her with an opportunity to make a significant sum of money by trading on the price of oil. 

“Ollie said we had a big opportunity in crude oil prices to make some serious money, but he wanted another R200,000 first.”

He said this had to happen quickly, within the next half an hour, or the opportunity would be lost. Claire invested an additional R200,000. 

Ollie then brought in Chris, who only helped high-net-worth clients. Chris told Claire she needed at least R800,000 invested to make serious returns. 

“So, I put in the last bit of my money. In one week, I had R458,000 invested which was every last cent I had saved up.

The next morning, Claire had no contact with Ollie and immediately thought she had been tricked. “I could not sleep for days. It became a whirlwind, and it all happened so quickly.” 

She tried to contact anyone at Banxso, but no one responded to her calls. Claire eventually went to the company’s head offices in Strand Street, Cape Town and was met with an empty park. 

A man called Alex phoned her and berated Claire for asking to withdraw her money. “He said, ‘This is not how you about it. I do not know why you started trading. You do not know what you are doing.’” 

Eventually, she organised a meeting at the company’s real offices in the Foreshore. Claire was told that everything was fine with her account and assured the company was completely legitimate. 

Ollie contacted Claire soon after and refused to withdraw her cash, saying she had lost R68,000 so far and that he would try to win it back for her. 

He asked her for an additional R200,000, but by this point, Claire had nothing more to give and refused. Ollie still refused to allow her to withdraw her money. 

“I woke up one day to an email saying my account had been closed, and every cent I had saved was gone.”

Claire could not contact anyone at Banxso and reported it to the police and the FSCA, before going to the media with her story. 

“They are so convincing. It is incredible how clever they are in manipulating you. It is unbelievable.” 

Banxso’s response to the FSCA

The FSCA brought the matter to the FIC’s attention earlier this year, prompting it to place a hold on seven Banxso bank accounts. 

On 4 October 2024, Banxso approached the Western Cape High Court for an order lifting the hold on the bank accounts. On 8 October 2024, the court ruled against Banxso and the hold was maintained.

The FSCA also brought the matter to the attention of the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the NPA. The National Director of Public Prosecutions successfully applied for a preservation order of the funds in the bank accounts on 14 October 2024,

Banxso has released a statement strongly denying all allegations of financial misappropriation and maladministration.  It also denied allegations of using deepfake advertisements. 

“The company maintains that this is a misstatement of fact, which will be fully ventilated in the appropriate forums as more details are made available to us.”

Banxso said it was committed to assisting the FSCA in finalising its investigations “with a positive outcome towards the company and its clients”.

The company said it is engaging with relevant stakeholders and the FSCA to gather all the necessary facts and understand the full scope of the situation.

The company said it is committed to transparency and regulatory compliance across all its operations.

“Moreover, the company’s primary focus remains resolute on protecting clients’ interests at all costs, and, as such, it will do everything in its power to ensure business continuity as far as possible within the confines of the FSCA’s regulatory processes.”

*Claire is a pseudonym