Mayfair promoter James Mawhinney emerges to run anti-scam service
James Mawhinney, the investment fund promoter whose Mayfair 101 business was found to have misled potential customers, is behind a new service which says it helps Australians avoid investment scams by providing free verifications that the product provider is legitimate.
The website, investing.com.au, claims to be “Australia’s home of investing” and says it offers a free service to check if a provider is operating a scam.
The operator of investing.com.au is the Australian Investment Group, a company in which Mr Mawhinney is the director and secretary. He has been embroiled in disputes with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and liquidators of entities he operated and is not currently permitted to raise money from the public.
James Mawhinney is behind investing.com.au, a service that claims to help track down scammers.
But he appears to be actively soliciting information from prospective investors in other financial products. A form on the website asks users to fill out contact details and additional information such as the provider they wish to verify and how much they intend to invest.
Underneath an image of a middle-aged couple sitting on a verandah, the website offers a downloadable guide of 15 ways to identify investment scams, and says it can undertake “proprietary identity checks on companies and their executives registered with our service”.
“You can join us in the fight against fraud,” it reads.
Mr Mawhinney’s activities have been under scrutiny from thecorporate watchdog since 2016 when he is alleged to have raised money under the IPO Capital brand without having the required financial licence.
He later set up the IPO Wealth brand in which he heavily promoted his fixed income investment scheme
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