PRESS RELEASE

GUERNSEY FSC WITHDRAWS ACTION AGAINST COSGROVE AND KELLERMANN

It was a complete vindication for Dave Cosgrove and Cobus Kellermann when the Guernsey Financial
Services Commission ("GFSC") announced on 1 September 2017 that the proceedings against them
as individuals and entities related to them are at an end and that no action will be taken. Cosgrove
and Kellermann have maintained their innocence from the start.

This decision marks the end of a lengthy and detailed investigation that the GFSC began more than
two years ago. At the time, the DeVere Group, self-proclaimed as the world's leading financial
consultancy, publicly congratulated themselves on allegations which they said revealed to the GFSC
the existence of a massive international Ponzi Scheme operated by Belvedere including under the
Global Mutual Fund (GMF) banner. Much of this now discredited information found its way into an
Affidavit in support of the GFSC's action an affidavit that was leaked to the press and the public in
controversial circumstances.

In April 2015, the GFSC suspended the licences of Lancelot Management Limited (part of the group
named by the media as the Belvedere Group). Lancelot was the platform manager of GMF
investment platform.

That there was no Ponzi Scheme soon emerged from audits done on the various "Belvedere"
companies. GMF was in fact a legitimate investment fund platform which meant that "Belvedere" in
fact had no access to the assets in the funds, which were held by independent custodians and was
not involved in any decisions in relation to the assets, which were managed by the independent
managers.

It soon became clear that the Ponzi Scheme allegations were not sustainable and that much of the
information the DeVere claimed to have supplied to the GFSC about how transactions SGF had been
involved in were structured and how they were valued was inaccurate. Although these facts were
pointed out to the GFSC early on in the process, the GFSC seemed intent to find Cosgrove and
Kellermann guilty of something. The GFSC downgraded the accusations to technical administrative
breaches and even those have now been dropped.

With most of the allegations against Cosgrove and Kellermann having fallen away early on, the focus
was on the Strategic Growth Fund ("SGF"). DeVere had initially argued that they were mere
investors (on behalf of their clients) in SGF, but they were later forced to admit that DeVere
themselves had established SGF before Lancelot had become the platform manager. Every
investment decision of SGF was taken by a Swiss company, United Asset Management, which was
wholly-owned by Nigel Green, the principal of DeVere, who was also the chief executive officer.
United Asset Management had been approved as the manager of SGF by the GFSC and DeVere
received all of the millions of Dollars of investment management, marketing and performance fees
generated by SGF. All of the investors in SGF were controlled by DeVere with multiple DeVere-
owned entities being interposed between SGF and DeVere's clients each reaping fees for DeVere.
DeVere has gone on to face numerous investigations for regulatory breaches in a number of
jurisdictions including South Africa.

The real victims of the process were the Investors who lost millions through the freezing of their
assets and the failure by the GFSC-appointed administrators to actively manage the funds. Guernsey
taxpayers had also spent a fortune on a witch-hunt. For Cosgrove and Kellermann, a once
burgeoning international financial services business had been destroyed. These factors put pressure
on the GFSC to ascribe blame and the process dragged on for months. Certain elements of the press,
notably the Offshore Alert blog and Biznews, had prematurely pounced on the story apparently also
having been fed misinformation by DeVere. When it was revealed that there was in fact no Ponzi
Scheme, the press had moved on to the next story leaving the unfair impression of Cosgrove and
Kellermann as "Ponzi kingpins" in the mind of the public.

The GFSC's decision to abandon all action completely vindicates Kellermann and Cosgrove. This
vindication is cold comfort for individuals including Mr Cosgrove and Mr Kellermann who have lost
their business and have been forced to face great personal and financial hardships. They expect the
outstanding Mauritian issues to be resolved shortly, especially in light of the developments in
Guernsey, whereafter, they will weigh their options.