The head of the suspected pyramid scheme Banners Broker has tried to reassure worried investors that there is still money in the company and that it has moved operations to the Central American country Belize.

Thousands of Irish investors have been left counting the cost after the company behind Banners Broker, a suspected online pyramid scheme, was wound up owing millions.

LAST year people sniffing around the potential of a burgeoning online company were explicitly told “every single person who joins Banners Broker makes money”.

An online ‘get rich quick’ business that promised investors guaranteed returns has pulled out of Ireland, leaving thousands of people battling to recoup their money from an address in Belize in Central America.

Packed into a foyer and a small bar at a country hotel in Wicklow, dozens of debtors came to sign away properties they have been fighting desperately to keep out of the clutches of the banks.

Controversial investment firm Banners Broker has moved to ease fears after its website was temporarily shut down, preventing people from accessing their accounts.

The investment vehicle Banners Broker has told its 15,000 subscribers that Mastercard has withdrawn its services because it no longer wants to be associated with the company.

Conor Ryan’s report on the Cork-based company operating Banners Broker in this country has certainly raised many questions about the business.

A leader of a get-rich-quick investment product recruiting across the country was a senior figure in a firm suspended from trading in Canada because of its pyramid-style operation.

Banners Broker says it is not a pyramid scheme. So what is it, Investigative correspondent Conor Ryan asks