Bamboozled for $348,000, Investors Say

MIAMI (CN) - A Florida man who operates Bancard Financial Services defrauded investors of $348,000 he promised to use to invest in commodities and foreign currencies - and to teach them how to do it too, three investors claim in court.

The three plaintiffs, all from Venezuela, sued Bancard Financial Services LLC and its principal, Anibangel Molina, in Federal Court.

Bancard is based in Miami and Molina somewhere in Florida, the investors say. They want their money back and damages for securities fraud, fraudulent inducement and conversion.

The plaintiffs - Walid Al Maaz, Mayada Cotech and Faisal Cotech - say Molina advertised Bancard on TV and the Internet, to "lure individuals" into investing "large amounts of money with Bancard," in gold, oil, platinum, silver, commodities and foreign exchange.

"A. Molina also set up a website for Bancard and launched television and youtube.com commercials, advertising classes in Miami for foreign currency exchange and commodities trading services," according to the complaint.

The plaintiffs claim: "Bancard further assured investors that investments would be secured by providing to plaintiffs with a fake certificate of bond allegedly issued by Lloyds of London and with $2,000,000.00 coverage. It was later found in a U.S. government investigation that this purported bond never existed.

"Between July 2011 and September 2011, Faisal, Al Manz and Cotech opened accounts with Bancard and deposited the amount of $348,490.60."

Molina sent them statement showing bogus profits, but when they asked for their investment back, the plaintiffs say, Molina promised to repay it, but never delivered.

Molina dodged their phone calls, blamed his wife, blamed a bank freeze, "Plaintiffs believe that defendants simply decided to take the funds transferred by Al Maaz, Cotech and F. Cotech for their own use as they never had any intention to send them to plaintiffs," the complaint states.

The plaintiffs are represented by Julisse Jimenez, of Miami.

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