Segoes Services Ltd. an off-shoot of Segoes Securities Limited was put into liquidation 29 April by an action in the Grand Court.
Christopher Stride and Kenneth Krys of RSM Cayman Islands were appointed as the joint provisional liquidators.
‘We’ve taken control of the company’s records and we’re trying to determine its assets,’ said Mr. Krys.
The liquidation occurred after the petition of two Segoes investors was filed with the Grand Court through the law firm Campbells.
Mr. Krys said the liquidation order was made just in time to for him to stop a shipment of 14 boxes of records from leaving the country by courier service.
‘The boxes were down at Sprint ready to be shipped to Belize,’ he said.
A related company, Segoes Trust, operates in Belize Mr. Krys explained.
Through the intercepted records, the ones still left in Segoes offices and through the cooperation of the last remaining employee of the company, Mr. Krys said he was hopeful the assets of the company could found.
‘The difficult part is locating where Segoes made investments,’ he said.
Mr. Krys said he had filed Section 304 proceedings in the United States to freeze any assets there.
He said he believed any Segoes assets in the US would be found in Florida and possibly New York.
Mr. Krys said Segoes did have some bank accounts locally and also some accounts receivable.
It is known that one of those receivables is an unpaid loan in the amount of $150,000 made to fund the printing press operation of another daily local newspaper which does not print on island.
Mr. Krys said the overall situation with Segoes could involve criminal activity.
‘There have been allegations of some fraud and that there have been assets misappropriated,’ he said.
In a letter dated 28 April, the day before the liquidation, Segoes director John Kaweske wrote to clients advising them of the recent termination of two employees.
He advised clients that he had learned ‘that various unauthorized transactions have occurred in the Segoes Trust, the Segoes Bond Fund and in other pooled investments.’
Mr. Kaweske said he had engaged a law firm and accounting firm in the US to review and investigate the transactions ‘as quickly as possible.’
According to the letter, Segoes clients will be protected.
‘In order to protect the rights of all concerned, Segoes has suspended all non-essential activities and has taken steps to maintain all cash positions,’ he wrote. ‘On-line statements are not reflecting the accurate balances or positions for client accounts.’
Mr. Kaweske asked clients to provide any correspondence from any Segoes employee, including e-mails and statements or records of telephone conversations.
The information was to be sent to Mr. Kaweske’s company e-mail address.
The company’s website at www.segoes.com was shut down by the joint provisional liquidators, Mr. Krys confirmed, adding that a new page redirecting inquires to him and Mr. Stride might be posted in the future.
Last October, the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority issued a press release advising the Cayman public that Segoes Securities Limited was not authorized carry on securities investment business in or from the Cayman Islands.
The announcement was made after Segoes had withdrawn its application for licensing required under the Securities Investment Business.
About the same time, Segoes announced that it had been purchased by company called Laxberg SA (FI) out of Uruguay.
Segoes said it would maintain customer service only in Cayman and started doing business as Segoes Services Ltd. thereafter.
Mr. Kaweske said Laxberg was an investment group incorporated in 1999, however it is understood that Laxberg was actually a shelf-company until recently.
Research has uncovered no mention of Laxberg SA on the worldwide web except for in a Cayman Islands newspaper.
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