Complaint Review: Balimo Investments AG - Extortion / Lending Fraud

On 6/30/2015, our company – We began verbal “Skype” conversation with Balimo Investments AG and its representative, Mr Ásbjörn Gosta. The objective of this conversation was to establish the terms and conditions to be provided in a Letter of Intent for a business loan to be made by Balimo Investments AG. The initial call concluded and we were told to compose the Letter of Intent that would set forth these terms and conditions discussed. Later that day, we sent the Letter of Intent to Balimo Investments AG that included all points discussed with Balimo for its execution. Within a few hours, we received the Letter of Intent executed by Mr Gosta on behalf of Balimo Investments AG. The Letter of Intent was exactly in keeping with what was verbally discussed with Mr Gosta. In fact, Mr Gosta, told us that it was the “best Letter of Intent” that he had ever been presented. He then advised that Balimo would draft an Escrow Agreement that would further bind the parties and allow for funds to be transferred.

On 7/3/2015, We received the Escrow Agreement in the same format with the exact terms and conditions that were spelled out in the Letter of Intent. The Escrow Agreement called for a 1% $250,000 deposit to be made to Balimo’s Agent. We executed the Escrow Agreement and promptly SWIFTED (wired) the funds to Balimo Investment AG’s escrow agent

Most Important Point – At no point, either in verbal discussions or in writing (via the Letter of Intent & Escrow Agreement), was there ever made mention of an additional “fee” to be charged by Balimo Investment AG. – – On 7/8/2015, Asjborn Gosta informed our company that he had received confirmation that the escrow funds had been received by Balimo’s escrow agent. He also informed us that our loan would be closed within 5-7 “business days”. This would’ve equated to a funding not later than 7/10/2015. Obviously funding did not occur. – – On approximately 7/8, we noticed that the Loan Agreement was missing or was being withheld. Both our company and its representatives requested on several occasions that the Loan Agreement be made available but without response from Balimo Investments AG or Mr Gosta.

On 7/20/2015, Mr Gosta sent to us the Loan Agreement. We reviewed it and became shocked when Balimo, for the first time, inserted a clause for a “4% Transmission Fee”. While we were very angered by the “Bait & Switch” that had just occurred, we were too far along in the process not to conclude the transaction and believed that a loan fee was not uncommon for financing in our industry. The important thing to note is that there was No due date for this mysterious Transmission Fee. When we discussed this troubling turn of events with Mr Gosta and Balimo we were told that it “due now and payable” even though there was no due date stated, it had not been properly disclosed and as is customary in the financing industry, any loan fees are not payable until the financing institution or bank actually closes on the loan and funds it. The lender then earns its “fee”.

Matters became worse between Balimo Investments AG and our company as we tried to negotiate a reasonable accommodation for both parties. Mr Gosta became quite arrogant with us and told us to “go to the FBI” if you’d like, it won’t do you any good. At this point Mr Gosta also informed us that he was only an “employee” of Balimo and didn’t have authority in this matter; however, on 8/3/2015 we received a Skype message from Gosta that he had agreed to reduce the Transmission Fee to 3%. We responded by telling Gosta that he had lost our trust and that we would not send any more money to a group that lacks any and all forms of integrity.

Further we have recently learned that the escrow agent, PROMIS@Service Sarl, is in breach as they are no longer in possession of the escrowed funds. According to the "Escrow Agreement", the "agent" is to keep in it's possession at all times the $250,000 escrow. We believe that a breach of the escrow agreement has occurred and that the entire escrow was sent to Balimo. This violates the "Escrow Agreement" and places the escrow agent at risk as they took money into their account and immediately sent to Balimo Investmetns AG Switzerland.

Last Point: If you visit the Balimo Investments AG Switzerland webiste you'll see that they cliam that their company has been, in effect, "highjacked" because their firewall was breached. They claim that "imposters" are pursuing their clients. While this may or may not be true, our company from day one (6/30) has been in communication with Mr Gosta and not an "impsoter". Our concern is that they'll go away for a few months and then reinvent themselves as a new company with different personnel names. BEWARE - they are not Swiss citizens. We beleive that they are Nigerian with vitual offices in Zurich and in Luxembourg. Please pay close attention to their accents, and remember, they will not show their faces on Skype.

We Are Very Concerned At This Point!

Key "supposed" officials of Balimo include:

Asbjorn Gosta

Jerome Cedric

Eric Holin

Bosshard Kurt

Albert Aldrich