Financial Services, Funds, Legislation, Lithuania

The Gold Line International scheme has placed on its website an add, written in the Lithuanian language, in which it encourages investing a certain amount of money into the scheme's operations. The scheme participants have been promised monetary rewards which, as explained on the same website, would directly depend on the number of recruited participants and the total amount contributed. Also, people have been promised to have regular and gradually growing income upon joining the scheme, writes LETA/ELTA.

"We can see obvious signs of a financial pyramid scheme, and therefore we have asked the Prosecutor General's Office to open a pre-trial investigation or start criminal prosecution in order to protect public interest regarding allegedly criminal operations of the Gold Line International," Vilius Sapoka, director of the Financial Services and Markets Supervision Department of the Bank of Lithuania, said.

He added that only licensed credit institutions have the right to receive deposits and other repayable funds from unauthorised market participants. The Gold Line International or other entities with similar title have not been issued such licence by the Bank of Lithuania. The aforementioned entity does not hold a payment institution licence either, giving the right to provide payment services.