Two Swiss companies allegedly hoodwinked thousands of Chinese investors in Mainland China and Hong Kong and made away with more than $1.2 billion of their money last January.

China.org reports that the victims of the scam have been gathering outside the gates of the Swiss embassy in China and Hong Kong to demand assistance in recovering their investment.

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The two Swiss companies, who allegedly conned the investors, have been identified as API Premiere Swiss Trust Ltd, which is located in Zurich, and Alpen Asset Management Trust Sarl, which is based in Geneva.  Representatives of API and Alpen allegedly presented themselves as foreign exchange traders. However, both of the companies do not have the required trading license, according to Asia One Business.

A spokesperson for the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) Vinzenz Mathy said that only licensed banks are authorized to offer such services.  He noted that neither API Premiere nor Aplen Asset Management is registered with the regulatory body.

Bloomberg Business interviewed some of the victims of the alleged investment scam, who revealed that the two companies promised their investors a 10 percent return of investment every month.  The victims were allegedly given papers attesting to this fact, but the money deposited in their accounts somehow vanished by January.

In desperation, the swindled investors have taken to the streets to demand help from the Swiss embassy and even the local police.

Some Chinese investors like Chen Biya, who owns and runs an advertising agency, have travelled to Geneva to try get their money back from API.  Unfortunately, none of the listed offices of API were opened. Reports indicate that they have shut down their operations for quite some time now. Even API's office in Hong Kong is closed.

Judicial authorities in Geneva said they have declared API and Alpen as bankrupt and started liquidating their assets last month.  Ten days after the investors' money disappeared in January, Finma reportedly announced that both API and Alpen are not licensed in foreign exchange trading. 

Experts in Swiss legal and financial laws doubt if the investors can recover their money any time soon.  The number of swindled investors is estimated to be about 29,000. No administrative member of both companies at the center of this scam have been arrested by the police thus far. 

TagsSwiss company cons Chinese investors, Chinese investment scam, Swiss investment scam, API Premiere Swiss Trust Ltd, Alpen Asset Management Trust Sarl