FG Capital Advisors is launching a Carbon Token in 2025. First choice for projects are peatlands in the Congo Basin
The man behind the Carbon Token is Kennesy Brouwers Kayembe
A company called FG Capital Advisors announced this week that it plans to launch a new Carbon Token in 2025. When the token is launched, FG Capital Advisors “plans to identify and develop suitable projects in the VCM [voluntary carbon market] category”, according to a press release dated 3 January 2024.
The press release states that many of the projects “are likely to be high-quality NBS [nature-based solutions] projects.”
The press release states that,
Peatlands have been identified by FG Capital Advisor as an investment priority for the proceeds from the sale of Carbon Tokens. . . . Areas like the Congo Basin are among FG Capital Advisor’s first choices for carbon offset projects.
FG Capital Advisors is aiming to raise money from institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals. Investing in the Carbon Token requires a minimum subscription of US$2.5 million. Investors in the tokens will own part of the projects that FG Capital Advisors selects and will be able to use or sell the credits generated by the projects.
The press release states that,
FG Capital Advisors plans to utilize the funds raised by the token to secure project concessions, assemble a dedicated team, develop the protocol, market the token to investors, and ensure compliance with relevant regulations.
Once the peatlands projects in the Congo Basin are up and running, the carbon credits generated will be tokenised on the blockchain to produce the Carbon Tokens.
FG Capital Advisors also plans to invest some of the money raised from selling Carbon Tokens into mining projects to extract what it calls “undervalued battery metals assets”. These include nickel, manganese, copper, cobalt, tin, and lithium.
FG Capital Advisors reassures us that the company “promotes responsible mining practices and environmental stewardship”.
Phew. That’s a relief. Because the company’s website gives a pretty good impression of business as usual:
Who is behind FG Capital Advisors?
The company’s website includes an “About Us” page, which tells us nothing about who is behind the company:
But the website also includes a report titled Voluntary Carbon Market Report. It is written by Kenny Kayembe.
His full name is Kennesy Brouwers Kayembe. He was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, but moved to Belgium at the age of seven. He moved to London in 2016, and in October of that year, at the age of 19, he incorporated a company called Quantum Global Capital LLP in the UK. The company was dissolved in February 2019.
Another of Kayembe’s companies, QG Lithium, was incorporated in November 2017 in the UK. On its website, the company claimed to have “multiple projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo”. The projects, according to QC Lithium, “are estimated to contain the largest Lithium reserves in the Sub-Saharan Africa”.
Kayembe’s partner in Quantum Global Capital and QG Lithium was Mawdud Choudhury, who was previously (amongst other things) Chief Information Officer at a sovereign wealth fund in the Sultanate of Oman.
But QG Lithium was dissolved in April 2019.
In April 2018, yet another Kayembe company, Minexco, was listed with Companies House as having significant control over QC Lithium.
According to a 2019 article about Kayembe, “Minexco is seeking to acquire assets with a total portfolio valued at approximately $9 billion.”
In fact, when that article was published, Minexco had been renamed as OLN Holding Ltd. The company operated under this name from October 2018 to July 2021.
According to OLN Holding’s website, in addition to the UK, the company was registered as OLN Mining Group in Belize, and as Minexco in Portugal. OLN Holding described itself as “a private holding company, active within cannabis, mineral resources, and real estate sectors globally”.
The company subsequently went through a few more name changes: Astravia Capital Management Ltd; Financely Group (Corporate Advisors) Ltd; and since 27 March 2023 it has been called Finstream Solutions Ltd.
Kayembe resigned as director on 21 October 2022. He was reappointed on 7 November 2022 and resigned again on 3 April 2023.
In May 2020, Kayembe registered a crypto investment company called SQ IXS Capital Management LLC in the tax and secrecy haven of Delaware.
In June 2022, Financely Group wrote a post on Medium announcing that,
Financely Group, has entered into an agreement with SQ IXS Capital Management LLC to issue 50,000,000 USD Coin (USDC) in high yield promissory notes for a 60-month term with expected returns averaging 12% RoR.
The 50,000,000 USDC will be placed in a staking pool managed by SQ IXS Capital Management LLC.
The staking rewards will be used by Financely Group to progressively acquire Bitcoin and Ethereum on a daily basis for 60 months.
Financely Group describes SQ IXS as “a leading provider of crypto asset management services”. Which is almost certainly a little bit of an exaggeration.
A search for “USD Coin” and “SQ IXS” returns only the Financely Group’s post on Medium:
In case you’re wondering, Financely Group is not the same company as Financely Group (Corporate Advisors) Ltd, previously known as Minexco.
Financely Group’s website states that,
Financely Inc. is a corporate finance consulting firm wholly owned by Aurora Bay Trust, a Bahamas established Trust or its relevant authorised affiliates. Our advisory business is carried out through Financely Group LLC.
All of which brings us back to FG Capital Advisors, the company planning to launch its Carbon Token in 2025. The small print at the bottom of FG Capital Advisors’ website states that,
The services described herein are provided by FG Capital. These services are offered through either (i) FG Capital Advisors Ltd, a company registered in the United Kingdom with registration number 11215222, or (ii) SQ IXS Capital Management LLC, a limited liability company registered in the State of Delaware, United States, with a State Registration Number SR20204351584 and File Number 7981509. The choice of entity through which services are provided depends on the specific circumstances, regulatory requirements, and other factors applicable to each client engagement.
Let's see. There's big business, then there's Really Big Business. And Really Big Business flies high and often has the shelf-life of dairy products (lands hard). If your financial NBS schemes actually reduce the increases in the Keeling Curve, why not tokenize that CO2 decrease, rather than play a shell game with imaginary presumed benefits? Great research again, thanks for posting!!