Three Financial.org investors appealed to the Global Investigations Association (GIA). Investors are concerned with the situation around Financial.org but the main reason for their appeal is hysteria around the situation that has been heated up by Reuters. Investors drew our attention to the fact that a group of Reuters journalists heated up the situation around Financial.org based on lies. Financial.org is not a British company! Lawyers of these three investors checked the information and they are convinced that the premise of Reuters, that Financial.org is a British company is a fabrication of British journalists. Within this context, investors asked GIA to verify this information and investigate provided facts. At the same time, investors pointed out that it is possible that Reuters’ journalists could have acted on someone else’s command. Also, it is possible that they have acted based on the agreement with representatives of Financial.org to promote the hype around the company.
GIA conducted an investigation and found out that a company such as Financial.org is not on the list of public and/or closed registries of companies in Britain. To get reassured in this, please visit the official website of the British Companies House. (для гиперссылки: https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/)
The inspection of trademarks also revealed that there is no trademark as such registered in Britain. One may also check it out through the official website. (для гиперссылки: https://www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/trade-marks )
GIA investigation also revealed that the trademark of Financial.org which was used in the advertising campaign Formula One is registered together with the Swiss company “Global Finanz Corp AG”. Representatives of Formula One also said they have entered into a partnership agreement with “Global Finanz Corp AG”, and its logo “financial.org” can be seen on Formula One cars. In addition, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) while investigating the activities of Financial.org made a statement and related Financial.org with the Swiss company “Global Finanz Corp AG”, but not the British one. British Financial Services Authority (FSA) also relates Financial.org with Swiss company “Global Finanz Corp AG”, while the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) speaks about Financial.org as a website, and not as the British company.
Thus, it can be fairly stated that the articles published by Reuters about Financial.org are fake news. Between January 2018 and September 2019, a group of Reuters journalists, led by journalist Carolyn Cohn, published 14 fake news stories about Financial.org. Perhaps, Reuters journalists pointed to the British origin of Financial.org to give a reason for the existence of these articles in the publication, otherwise, Reuters editorial management could not have accepted these articles for publication. This version is one of the possible ones.
Perhaps fabricated British origin of the company Financial.org was used to reduce the investment attractiveness of British companies as a whole, to use this fact as an argument against the advocates of Brexit. Such motives, among other things, cannot be ruled out, keeping in mind frequent publications by Reuters about the negative impact of Brexit on the British economy and the investment climate. One of the authors of these publications is Reuters journalist Carolyn Cohn, which was already mentioned before.
We can assume that Reuters management was unaware of the falsification of information concerning British origin of Financial.org. In this regard, it shall be understood whether it is a tendency or a particular case of information misrepresentation? Provided this is a particular case, perhaps Reuters management should study it as closely as possible and make all relevant decisions in accordance with the norms and standards stated by Reuters. Under these circumstances, presumably, Reuters’ actions should be decisive.
To respond to this fact, GIA will contact Reuters editorial with relevant materials and request to comment, given that this is not the first fake Reuters news. These materials are going to be sent to UK trade unions as well, to focus on the activities of certain Reuters journalists. Perhaps this is not the only series of articles authored by these journalists. GIA will also communicate the materials of this investigation to international expert groups like “Dun and Bradstreet”, “Ksv1870” and other financial audit agencies.