TONY HETHERINGTON: Mystery of ‘billionaire’ behind CashFX

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. 

Recruit: The City watchdog lets Jojar Dhinsa promote CashFX

H.P. writes: You wrote a piece on CashFX in December last year. 

You may be interested to know that CashFX appears to have recruited a British billionaire businessman called Jojar Dhinsa. 

He is chief executive and founder of a large corporation called the Athlone Group. 

Tony Hetherington replies: CashFX poses as a training organisation, offering members high-priced manuals about foreign exchange trading. But this is window dressing. The real attraction is the unbelievable yield its recruiters dangle in front of prospective investors.

The company itself is based in Panama, but it is very active in Britain, where one of its biggest promoters claimed: ‘CashFX has always paid a daily return of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, which is capped at 15 per cent passive income each week; this is from trading done on your behalf – you can literally set it up and forget it.’ 

So, forget the boring training manuals. Simply hand over your money and CashFX will notch up huge returns for you by trading in currencies. 

Having Jojar Dhinsa appear in its online presentations must have been like a gift from heaven. After all, if an everyday self-made billionaire from Coventry is putting his money into CashFX, then surely everyone should. 

I spoke to Dhinsa a few months ago, when his name first cropped up. He claims to be a billionaire, with businesses based in Kazakhstan, but he assured me he was just an ordinary member of CashFX. He would not endorse it or recruit others. 

Since then things have changed. Dhinsa told me he has spent much of his time ‘assisting the feeding of the UK’s homeless populations’. This inspired him to set up a motivational scheme called IML – Impacting a Million Lives. And a slice of the fees handed over to his scheme go straight to CashFX. Anyone joining IML automatically belongs to CashFX as well. 

IML’s marketing literature says: ‘Jojar has formed an alliance with CashFX whose purpose is to provide CFX members with a premium automated trading platform that enables them to achieve financial success within the forex marketplace.’ So much for not endorsing CashFX, which the Financial Conduct Authority denounces as unlawful.

With this in mind, I spoke again to Dhinsa. I asked whether he had a ‘downline’ in CashFX, giving him a rake-off from people he recruited. He replied that he does not even know what a downline is. I rephrased my question, asking whether he derived any benefit from new members. He refused to say, and then asked whether I was paying him for his time spent talking to me. 

Dhinsa still insists he does not promote CashFX, even though his own internet presentations do exactly this. The blunt truth is that he trades on his financial reputation, whether justified or not, to lure others into joining an illegal scheme. 

And this raises the question of why the FCA lets Dhinsa and his pals get away with it. I asked Mark Steward, head of enforcement at the FCA, a simple question: Why has he failed to prosecute anyone promoting CashFX, which is not authorised to provide financial services? 

His answer was the usual vague guff that comes from the FCA, telling the public to check the FCA register of licensed firms, and complaining that the FCA is limited in what it can do about overseas businesses or internet promotions. He did not even mention CashFX. 

When I repeated my question, the FCA’s response was a blanket refusal to comment. 

This is the same response the FCA gave me in December. In six months, nothing has changed. Officials at the regulator’s plush headquarters find time to chew over a surprising range of issues. Lately they have been spending time and money on climate change and gender discrimination. Perhaps one day they will rediscover their roots and protect consumers. 

Until then, why should offenders stop offending?

Holiday firm wants to ‘guard’ my cash 

B.M. writes: I have used Alpharooms for more than 20 years, and I had booked to stay in Spain. 

Due to Covid, Alpharooms cancelled my booking and sent me a credit note for £241. 

I asked for a cash refund five times, but all I received was a reply saying my money was safe with the firm. 

Room with a view: Alpharooms cancelled B.M.'s booking in Spain but only sent a credit note for £241

Room with a view: Alpharooms cancelled B.M.’s booking in Spain but only sent a credit note for £241

Tony Hetherington replies: How arrogant, to tell you that your money is safe with Alpharooms, almost implying that it is safer with the firm than with you. Alpharooms says it is a member of The Travel Association, and that this offers customers protection. However, the TTA itself explained that this protection would apply if a member ceased trading, so even though Alpharooms uses this as a selling point, its flat refusal to return your money would not mean that the TTA would foot the bill. 

Alpharooms failed to reply to repeated invitations to comment on why it was clinging to your money, so I told it we would be going ahead with publication of your complaint. 

Suddenly, with no apology, no explanation and no comment, Alpharooms called you to say it would repay you, and a week later the £241 appeared in your bank account.

Four years on, and proceeds of father’s will are undistributed

Mrs S.H. writes: I am trying to help a friend who is a beneficiary of her late father’s will, but who has not received the money left to her. 

She is unable to get any answers from the executrix or from solicitors who have dealt with the will. 

My friend is a single mother, unable to afford solicitors of her own, and the bequest would be a huge help to her. 

Tony Hetherington replies: The stumbling block, according to your friend, has been that the will’s executrix is her late father’s live-in partner. 

Your friend and other members of her family are beneficiaries, but since her father passed away four years ago there has been almost no progress in administering the estate.

If an executor refuses to apply for a Grant of Probate, or commits serious misconduct in administering the estate, a court can remove them and appoint a new executor, but of course this involves a hefty legal bill. 

I contacted the executrix, and her solicitors told me the estate is not big enough to require formal probate. But they added that ‘our client is still obliged to ensure she has dealt with all issues arising’. 

I have no idea what those issues might be that have held up bequests for so long, but the solicitors clearly took the delay seriously, and within days your friend received a cheque for the full amount left to her. 

One final point. Almost everyone involved in this episode lives within a small community, so I agreed with the executrix’s solicitors to leave out any detail that could possibly identify them. I suspect there has been enough unpleasantness already.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned. 

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