Expat financial advice specialist deVere Group is considering legal action against the creators of a website for publishing what it calls “malicious and false content”.
The company has hit back after a report in the Daily Telegraph about critics of the company launching a site to publicise claims that customers were being ‘ripped off’ by deVere's allegedly excessively high fees.

Managers at deVere said they were pursuing all legal avenues and expected the content to be removed soon.

In a statement released this morning, deVere said: “This would appear to be a highly organised attack on a legitimate, well-established and regulated organisation. It is extremely well-planned and uses almost identical branding of the bona fide deVere Group.

“It can be reasonably assumed that this website, which contains defamatory, libellous, false allegations, has been set up by someone for their own personal and/or professional gain.

“We also believe we now know the author of this site and will look to take action for substantial damages against them in due course.

“We are actively pursuing all legal avenues to defend the company’s reputation. We expect the site, which contains highly defamatory, malicious and false content to be removed very soon.”

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The statement continued: “The site includes misinformation about deVere charges and fees. Our charges are lower than industry averages and our size gives us unique access to the top investment managers in the industry.

“This competitive advantage sometimes causes a jealous reaction from other brokers. Obviously this is a disappointing reaction to a company that seeks always to provide the best in the market.”

The website mentions a Hong Kong company, which deVere said it sold nearly 12 months ago, with the new owners going through the process of changing the name.

The deVere statement added: “As the entity currently has no chief executive, we understand that it has been temporarily suspended, as would be expected. As such, it is inaccurate and misleading to in any way involve or link deVere to this suspension.”

deVere group has 80,000 clients worldwide, mostly expats and overseas investors.