The High Court has ordered the wind up of an online investment broker which made bogus claims to be regulated before going on to mislead investors.

The Insolvency Service, which investigated the company, said Scothop Limited has been wound up in the public interest in the High Court of Justice. 

The Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator of the company which was based in Bloomsbury, central London, and traded mainly under the name Genesis11.

Investigators received information from at least 7 investors who suffered combined losses of at least £263,000, including one investor who lost close to £100,000.

The court heard that Scothop Limited claimed to be a regulated online broker able to trade commodities.

The appointed director of Scothop Limited at the time of its winding up was Ilie Adascalitei, the sole registered director since 22 January 2019.

The Insolvency Service received complaints about the practices of the company and launched confidential enquiries into the firm’s activities, finding significant losses to investors.

Investigators found that customers were encouraged to invest with the online broker and would often see their investments increase in value, prompting customers to invest further.

When investors attempted to withdraw their funds, they were either charged a substantial fee or their investments significantly fell in value. Scothop Limited would then cease contact with investors if they continued to remove funds or did not pay the fee.

Further enquires revealed that Scothop Limited claimed to keep funds in segregated third party accounts. But funds were held in accounts in the name of individuals that were not registered as officers of the company.

The financial regulator had no knowledge of Scothop Limited and during the investigation and court proceedings, individuals connected to or in control of the company’s affairs and management failed to engage with the Insolvency Service, the service said.

At the winding-up hearing, Judge Jones agreed that the company traded without “commercial probity” and had obtained funds on a false and misleading basis.

The Judge added that Scothop Limited acted with a lack of transparency and that there was an absence of proper records to confirm that investors’ funds had been used for a proper purpose or to establish what happened to any funds received.

The Official Receiver as Liquidator will try to recover the assets of the company to return to creditors.

Edna Okhiria, chief investigator for the Insolvency Service, said: “Our investigations identified that Scothop Limited misled investors, illegitimately securing thousands of pounds whilst falsely claiming to be regulated.

“Thankfully the court recognised the severity of the company’s actions and wound-up Scothop Limited before any more investors lost their money. We hope this outcome serves as a warning to other rogue investment firms that we have the necessary powers to put a stop to unscrupulous misconduct.”

• Any enquiries about the company should be made to the Official Receiver of the Public Interest Unit: 16th Floor, 1 Westfield Avenue, Stratford, London, E20 1HZ; Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.