Is Trust Investing a Scam?

Trust Investing is one of the many digital investing platforms that have popped up recently on the global scale in an effort to profit from the bitcoin boom that is rocking global financial markets.

The company initially specialized in the marketing and management of bitcoin assets, but it has since expanded greatly, with the cryptocurrency market accounting for a very small portion of its overall earnings.

Since 2019, the firm has grown exponentially, with a number of additional initiatives that aren't primarily related to cryptocurrency asset management popping up within the company.

It also encompasses a variety of activities, such as the purchase of a wine firm that offers clients of Trust Investing, where you may buy wine and have it shipped to you for retail purposes.

The business employs a network marketing trust structure, which is common in the informal market but is not subject to government regulation or monitoring. It depends on members, or "trusters," who are compensated based on the amount of money they invest and the number of new investors they bring on board.

With a minimum initial payment of just $15, Trust Investing promises returns of more than 200 percent in just 10 months. From the sales of their residences, some clients in Cuba, for example, allegedly invested thousands of dollars in the business (or scheme).  Despite its name being in English, Trust Investing is solely Spanish.

According to the corporate website, there are 800,000 users in 80 countries, including 300,000 in Cuba, one of the poorest nations in the region where the majority of citizens lack access to foreign cash.

Is Trust Investing a Scam?

According to the Brokeronline portal, Diego Chaves, the founder and director of Trust Investing, was already involved in at least five legal cases, some of which are finance-related.

Critics claim that the platform's investing strategy is alarmingly similar to so-called ponzi schemes, or "Pyramid" schemes, which pay returns to early investors with money from subsequent investors despite not having a real money-making company operations in view.

After Ruslan Concepción, a 28-year-old industrial engineer and Trust Investing's national "team leader," was detained at the Havana airport while traveling to Moscow, family claim that Trust Investing's operations in Cuba have come under close investigation.

The Superintendency of the Securities Market of the Republic of Panama (SMV) and the National Securities Market Commission of Spain (CNMV) also released identical declarations last year to make it clear that Trust Investing "is not permitted to provide investing services" in their respective nations.

Trust Investing Founders

Three businesspeople from Brazil, at least two of whom moved to Spain a few years ago, created Trust Investing in 2019.

CEO Diego Chaves grew up in a working-class family in Porto-Alegre, a city in southern Brazil. When he was 16 years old, he moved to Malaga, Spain, where he took his first job harvesting lemons.