GSPartners has imposed a 50% withholding fee on all investor withdrawals, less than 24 hours after disabling weekly returns on investment. The company calls this new restriction its "Market Protection Strategy," or MPS.
The MPS mechanism activates when investors attempt to convert GSPartners' internal digital assets, often proprietary tokens, into Tether (USDT) for withdrawal. Instead of releasing the full requested amount, GSPartners confiscates half the funds. The company states this 50% portion will be withheld for 13 months.
This recent action follows a series of securities fraud warnings issued by multiple Canadian regulators. The Alberta Securities Commission specifically named GSPartners, G999, and GSTrade in its alerts. Similar warnings came from regulatory bodies in Quebec, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario.
Canada remains the second largest source of new investors for GSPartners. The United States, however, accounts for the company's largest investor base. This prominence has prompted the likelihood of ongoing investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) or the Department of Justice.
The SEC regularly advises consumers that securities fraud and Ponzi schemes frequently operate together. Any investment in securities within the United States must be registered with the SEC or state securities regulators. Federal US authorities typically refrain from issuing public fraud warnings while active investigations are in progress.
GSPartners rebranded its website to "Swiss Valorem Bank" in May 2023. This change occurred after the initial wave of Canadian regulatory warnings. Despite the website rebranding, the company continues to use the GSPartners name in its marketing efforts and communications.
The first round of GSPartners' "metaverse certificates," which promised 180% returns over 18 months, are scheduled to expire by the end of 2023. A subsequent certificate tier, offering 215% over 24 months, will reach its expiry around mid-2024.
GSPartners has consistently introduced new certificate tiers with increasingly higher promised returns. This strategy aims to encourage investors to reinvest their funds rather than withdrawing them. The "Success Series" certificates, released in October 2023, allow affiliates to invest between 150 and 100,000 USDT. These new certificates promise potential returns as high as 1.76 million USDT on a 100,000 USDT investment, though these payouts are now subject to the 50% withdrawal withholding fee and past ROI disablings.
GSPartners has issued threats of account termination to investors who publicly voice complaints about the scheme or their inability to access funds.