Log In

Reset Password

Arbitrade’s website vanishes

Nothing to see: Arbitrade’s website no longer appears online. The domain name registration licence expired on September 29

Arbitrade’s website is no longer operating. There is nothing at the web address arbitrade.io, which was used by the company, other than a message saying the site “can’t be reached”. An online check revealed the domain name registration licence expired on September 29.

In June, the website had been reduced to a “coming soon” landing page after all information previously posted was removed.

Separately, a gold miner has filed a civil action against a company that once said it was the gold procurement agent for Bermudian-registered Arbitrade.

The case has been filed by Don David Gold Mexico, a subsidiary of Colorado-based Gold Resource Corporation, against Sion Trading FZE and others, at Salt Lake City district court in Utah. Sion is registered in the United Arab Emirates.

A report by the Offshore Alert website said the court filing concerns an alleged breach of contract relating to the purchase of gold and silver doré.

In December, Sion announced it had secured a precious metals contract with Don David Gold Mexico to purchase “metal doré” from its Oaxaca Mining Unit “to further enhance Arbitrade’s existing gold assets”. The relationship between the two companies ended soon afterwards.

Arbitrade called itself a cryptocurrency exchange and mining company, and made a number of claims last year about having “title” to more than $10 billion of gold bullion to back a series of crypto tokens, and plans to create hundreds of jobs in Bermuda.

In August, it said its safe keeping receipt for the gold had been transferred to another company, called Cryptobontix, which owned the crypto tokens.

Arbitrade subsidiary Arbitrade Properties (Victoria Hall) Ltd, through an amalgamation, acquired the $6.5 million Victoria Hall office building, on Victoria Street, last October. It did so with the consent of David Burt, the Premier, in his capacity as Minister of Finance at the time.

The building was to be used by Arbitrade as its global headquarters, however it remains in darkness.

The two shareholders of Arbitrade Properties are Arbitrade founder Troy Richard James Hogg, a Canadian, and James Goldberg, an American. In October there were no Bermudian directors, however a document filed in April at the Registrar of Companies stated that 66 per cent of the directors are Bermudian.

The names of the directors did not appear on the Bermuda Directors Register website in August, but are today listed as Bermuda Directors Limited; Delroy Duncan, of Trott & Duncan law firm; and John Francis MacNeil, of New York.

The Royal Gazette has reached out to Mr Duncan to ask if there are any plans for the use of Victoria Hall, and whether Arbitrade is still operating.

Arbitrade Properties has its registered office at Trocan Management Ltd, in the Trott & Duncan Building on Brunswick Street.

Arbitrade is not listed as a licensed entity on the Bermuda Monetary Authority website.