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Thought we might be doing something different by interviewing a payment processor CEO, instead of the usual program HYI admins. There’s a few speculation on Asian Pay’s new LYIP in discussion forums. I’ll be checking them out when I can spare some time. Meanwhile, an email interview with the man behind Asian Pay, Carlo Sorio.

Before reading, prepare a bucket of popcorn and a diet coke. it’s a LOOONG interview. More insights on how Asian Pay is operating and an investment opportunity from them. My written thoughts will be coming in a few days time.

Hi Carlo, this is Jude from No Bullshit HYI Blog Community (http://hyipblog.nobshyip.net/) and we thank you for accepting our email interview.

1. Before we start, would you like to tell us more about yourself?
   
   Name: Carlo Sorio
   Age: 46
   Born in Genoa (Italy) on April 18^th, 1960
   Classic studies (Liceo Classico) followed by 4 years of Economia E Commercio (Commerce and Economy) at the University Of Parma, while working for one of the most Important Insurance Company in Italy since 19 years old.
   Married 10 years in Italy, now divorced, living from 8 years with an honest, funny and beautiful Thai Lady, really committed to the Business like me. She has 2 kids, a girl and a boy, living with us and we are a real family and they love me like their real father. This makes me proud, considering the great difference of culture and attitude between me (an Italian) and Thai people. I speak fluently Thai language, but still I’m not real able to read and write it.
   I moved to Thailand 8 years ago to follow the idea of building an Export Business from here. It is now a successful Business still under the name of my first Company here; InThai Trading Co. ltd. that I still own with the first time partner and founder with me Mr. Aldo Gonzalez Mendoza, actually living in Italy. We have good customers, good business and good friends. We have a warehouse not far from our head office. Now InThai trading is part of the team and is owned also from Chiangmai Solutions Co. ltd., my second Company, founded in April 2003 with Mr. Raymond Conduit, an highly experienced marketing man , now living in England, that is also one of three founders with me of AsianPay Co. ltd.. The third founder is Dr. Corrado Prever, from Torino, Italy. He entered our team, buying shares in our holding Company, Chiangmai Solutions Co. ltd., in December 2004 and he is here with me sharing the hard work on the field.
   I’m also a programmer and all our web sites, including AsianPay Co. ltd. are done, technically managed and supported in house. We never let third parties to access our web sites and our data and this is one more important safety. I consider myself like the AsianPay father. Everything, the software and the project, do come from me including the full code. I love to do this job and I love to honestly help people in the right way, not only thinking to the money but also building a friendly relationship and helping every time my business allows me to have the time to help. Who knows me is my witness.

2. Why the establishment of AsianPay? Does AsianPay have a vision to accomplish?
   
   If you don’t mind I have included this answer in the answer to the question Number 6.
   

3. Does AsianPay has any incorporation documents that can be shared among our readers?
   
   AsianPay Co. ltd. is fully registered in Thailand and has all the incorporation documents of course in Thai language. I’ll send to you a zipped file that includes scanned copy of the originals and scanned copy of their English translation. Of course the copies are provided to you for a verification purpose only and if you want to publish them you are kindly required to void them before to publish them. However the most important registration, our E-commerce business registration with The Thailand Ministry of Commerce, is always available from our website by clicking on the right top logo of the D.B.D. Department of Business Development that is the equivalent of the Commercial Registration Office in other countries. The logo links to The Ministry of Commerce web site so it is always updated and true. I mean: is not a page on our web site that could be untrue or outdated. (To be fair, Carlo has attached a list of documents of the incorporation and share allotment of Asian Pay and its subsidaries)
   

4. We do understand that AsianPay is incorporated in Thailand, Chiang Mai. Is there any strategic reason why AsianPay is established in Thailand?
   
   It is more the consequence of some logistic situations, including the fact that all the founders are or were living here. But it is also resulting in a good strategic choice. Thailand is a pretty developed country with a good Bank System ( one example is the easy way we have to provide WIRE transfers worldwide in a timely manner. Almost quicker that for example domestic transfers in USA) and always looking to innovation. In a few words Thailand includes all the vantages of Hong Kong or Singapore incorporation with much more less costs, last but not least the labor cost. At the same time Thailand is not offering free-tax offshore solutions, and this, in our vision, is a positive situation to guarantee honesty and integrity to our members and to gain high confidence in the market. We are subjected to laws that are very similar to the USA and European Laws in this Business sector, but with some difference that let us to have some more lawful freedom in managing our business. In particular Chiang Mai is probably the best place to live in Thailand offering all the services that Bangkok can offer without all the negative situation of the Big Capital. However we are planning in the medium time, when the growing of the Business will justify it, to move our head office to Bangkok, but our offices in Chiang Mai will probably move downtown, but will never close.
   

5. Are members actually allowed to visit your stated business address, and can we personally get to talk to you as well?
   
   Of course is possible. We have offices opened to the public every working day and everyone can come to visit us in working hours. I’m almost a very present CEO, but it is better for anyone looking for a direct meeting with me to advise at least one week in advance and to get an appointment. I’m often traveling around for Business. Our addresses and telephone numbers can be found on our web site going to https://asianpay.com/about.php
   

6. How long has AsianPay been running and how different is AsianPay from other payment processors in the market at this point? What are the full ranges of services which AsianPay provides?
   
   Thank you for this question. This is what we consider the clue in our project. AsianPay started its official operations on September 1^st, 2005 after a 3 months pre-launch testing period. The best way to fully understand what we do and how we do it is going to:
   https://asianpay.com/howto.php
   
   Yes AsianPay is truly different. I personally like to define AsianPay like the “Slow but safest Payment Processor”. AsianPay project started 3 years ago when I started to write the code for the software that power the web site with a very important goal to achieve:
   to build a Payment Processor Business trying to avoid or solve all the problems experienced being for years a user of our Competitors like PayPal, StormPay, MoneyBookers and others, and also providing a good alternative to standard gateway provider like WorldPay or 2Checkout.com or similar. In 8 years of Export and
   E-commerce business on Internet through our Partner Company InThai trading Co. ltd. I had the opportunity to experience all the possible difficulties in being a Customer of the above companies, especially related to delay in settlements (WorldPay keep your money 5 weeks in a row, 2checkout.com 15 days, to withdraw money from PayPal or StormPay being in Thailand was almost impossible or very costly when possible.) and in particular related to fraudulent transactions issues and chargebacks issues. This second reason is probably the most important. You can manage your business to be ready to cover the cash-flow needed to provide goods to your buyers waiting for the settlement or to receive the withdraw from the above companies, but you can not deal with chargebacks received when you already delivered the goods or the services. This means for your business to loose twice the amount of the single transaction that has been charged back. This happened many times to us from any of the Company above.
   
   Where is the problem with the Companies above and almost any Payment Processor or gateway provider? Is in the system itself: when you have a merchant account and accept payments through any of the above systems, you have not the safety and the guarantee they claim, for the very simple reason that they can not guarantee anything to you, because they do not know the buyer, nor they can understand if the used Credit Card is a real one or if the buyer is the real cardholder. All transactions processed in real time should be considered at “chargeback risk”. And this is what happens for real. If the transaction is fraudulent or if, like sometime happens, the cardholder is a cheater, after 2 or 3 days, or in the worst situations after 2 or 3 months, you have already delivered the purchased goods/services and you receive a refund notice, a hold placed on transaction notice or a chargeback notice. Goods are gone and with them the money they cost to you, and the Company above get back the money from your account with them and also charge you incredible fees for the chargeback with the excuse that they have been charged from the Bank or from the Credit Card Company.
   So this is actually the picture in the Internet E-commerce Business:
   it is not your fault, you are using their services because you expect them to protect you as a merchant doing for you the Due Diligence on the buyers that they are expected to do on your behalf and that any Merchant does when accept Credit cards or electronic payments in a physical shop on the street often asking for an Identity card to be collected and kept in files with the slip receipt payment. You are anyway the one that pays for criminal actions done by others. This makes sense in the modern economy, Internet based, where not being the Big Companies able to track cheaters and criminals, the honest people have to pay for these actions because the big boys do not want to loose money running their own business. It is like to have a Company and to say to your customers that because they use your services they have to cover your own Business Risk.
   
   That’s quite funny, and this is what we are against and the reason why there was the need of AsianPay.
   
   I perfectly understand that our vision lead to a “Slow payment processor” like I said above and like some of our members claim. Well I strongly believe that no-risk money business and speed can not match. If you offer speed you offer risky transactions, if you slow down and verify the transactions you cut the risk. This is what we do and this is what makes AsianPay Payments different.
   
   All the members using a Credit card are certified with a very strict system that includes sending copies of documents and sending copy of the Credit card with a legal Authorization form that has to be filled and signed in original. When someone gets paid through an AsianPay button or when you pay someone through an AsianPay button both buyer and seller are really protected. Why? 1. Because we know already both of them. Sellers can not use the merchant tools if not verified and buyers can not pay sellers if not verified. 2. Because of our system, Credit cards deposits are not registered as a purchase of goods but as a “Top Up deposit to the buyer account”. This means that by law the transaction is completed at the very moment we credit the buyer account with the Credit card deposit. This is another important difference. The purchase transaction is a completely different transaction that happens later, and the Buyer Credit card statement will report “deposit to…” and not purchase of, so there is not possible claim with he Credit card Companies, and if the buyer try anyway to claim, we will have in our hands all the documents to successfully dispute the chargeback request.
   
   The above complete the Seller protection. How we protect the buyer? Basically in the same way. We know the seller and if any problem arises from the purchase there is a Claim center enabled where buyers can dispute an order. AsianPay will act in this claim center as arbitration if buyer and seller can not find the way to agree. Also an important protection is the consequence of a strict manual control we operate on any transaction.
   When a merchant require a withdraw we check any transaction involved with this member, and we hold the withdrawal request, if needed to protect buyers, for the time necessary to contact the buyer and understand if the transaction has to be considered valid.
   
   In the case a “Non Member Yet” place a purchase from a Button using a Credit card (we allow this process), the transaction is kept pending, the seller is advised, and the buyer has to provide the requested documents in a timely manner or the Transaction will be reversed and the Credit card refunded. This is the part that some of our members discuss, saying (on the Merchant Side), my buyers don’t like to go through such a long process to buy from me. Better PayPal or StormPay that allows you to pay immediately.
   Our answer is: do we have to show you the list of payments was reversed later from PayPal and StormPay and others and from which members do these payments come from? Believe to me, statistically 87% of reversed transactions are transactions done from new unverified members using a fake name (Identity theft) and a stolen Credit Card (fraudulent transactions).
   moreover, an honest buyer that really want to buy your products or sue your services, will be more then happy to go through our system, because will understand also for itself the importance of our security. As the buyer is verified for you from us, so the seller is verified from us on behalf of the buyer. This results in a safe transaction where both the parties are protected and where finally to do business on internet is a pleasant experience.
   When we speak about money business, we believe that small and medium business should be the target. Amazon.com will never need our services, but they also will never cry for a Chargeback. As Big Department Stores calculate already the average amount of products will be stolen in the branch and manage their prices and mark-up accordingly, the same does Amazon with the average percentage of Chargebacks.
   
   Our question is; can a small or medium business or a home business trying to earn a decent living from Internet make this calculation? The logic answer is NO WAY! CAN NOT!
   
   We still have to see AsianPay Payments to start to be fully accepted from merchants worldwide. As soon as we will be able to make people and our members to understand how much easy could be this way, with a little bit of effort in the beginning….well I believe AsianPay will explode!
   
   Last but not least, one more good reason to accept AsianPay Payments on a merchant web site is our transactions fee: we charge only 2.5% + 0.29 USD to receive payments. The lowest on Internet.

Are audits done on a regular basis to prevent discrepancies? And if there is, who is in charge of the audits?

We run Internal audits on a monthly basis. These audits are done from our Board of Directors in cooperation with our Accounting Department. Then, as per The Thailand law, every year, before to present to The Revenue Department the yearly balance and to present it for approval to the Annual meeting of The Shareholders, an external Government Authorized Auditor complete a full audits on the Company documents and verify balances, assets and company equities. The Company in charge is PRC Audit and Advisory in the person of Mr. Patcharin Samarath, Thailand Authorized Auditor.
Accordingly to The Thailand Law, being AsianPay Co. ltd. formed and registered on August 30^th, 2005, we are required to present the first Balance for the period that goes from August 30^th, 2005 to December 31^st, 2006. As per the Law in many other Countries in the world, we will have to complete this process within May 30^th, 2007.

8. How many team members are currently in Asian Pay and what are their specific job scopes? Is there a helpdesk number we can call to if we face any problems with your services?
   
   AsianPay has a 3 members Board of Directors that physically manage the Company. Two directors are here in Chiang Mai while the third one is in USA. Meeting of the Board are called regularly accordingly to the Company by law and are done by Conference call to allow the USA director to participate. AsianPay has more then 30 shareholders around the world, people that entered our partner program launched in early October 2005, and that are actively cooperating with the Company in promoting the business. Our head office, located in Chiang Mai count at the present time 10 full time employee (covering technical, administrative and customer service issues) plus 10 to 15 part time employees hired for the support and verification department. Address and telephone numbers are published on our web site at https://asianpay.com/about.php . We are waiting for the assignment from the TOT (Thailand Telephone Company) of a domestic Toll Free Number for our Thailand Customers Base Support and we are planning already to have an International Toll Free Number also very soon. In the meanwhile, during these first 10 months of operations, we had all and only positive feedbacks about our support. We have a highly improved Support center and our members can tell how fast we answer to any enquiry. The ticket support system is considered from our Company as the most important resource to get new members and to keep the existing ones happy and satisfied with our services. We also offered an Online Live Support in the past. Technical matters and securities issues have suggested to us to suspend it but we are planning to restart it safely at the beginning of May.
   
9. We understand that AsianPay has a LYIP (Low Yield Investment Program) that is currently running for your members. What kind of returns is it promising and how is it generating the return on investments (ROI) specifically in details?
   
   This program is a strictly private program offered only to AsianPay members. I prefer to not completely disclose here all the information also because it would take a lot of space. Basically the important things to know are: 1. we are not an HYIP neither we act as an HYIP. We are not offshore, we do not invest in stock exchange, stock market, we do not buy stack on Companies and we do not sell or trade in securities. The daily returns vary from a 0.35% to a 1.50% accordingly to the plan the member will choose and is strictly based on our daily return based on the fees we receive from Transactions done in the system, Our financial plan is based only on our Egold exchanges services, but of course we profit from any type of transactions so even if the Egold business (I don’t think it possible) will slow down we can anyway cover the profit we offer. Basically just take a look to our fees, compare them with the profit we offer and everything should appear very clear. Basically The Investors Corner is a loan project. We receive loans from our members, we pay an interest and payback the principal when the loan established period closes.
   
10. Would that be in any case, members’ funds are guaranteed since it’s a LYIP that you are running?
    
    Unless we go bankruptcy (and this possibility is not part of our project), yes they are guaranteed, almost because they represent for us a cash flow on our business turn over so wherever the money are, in Egold, or in our Bank Accounts they are always available. But there are not Institutional Guarantor in Thailand, so what matter is the confidence that members can reach in our Company after testing us and after doing a complete due diligence on us.
    
11. Will there be any upcoming changes in AsianPay that members will be expecting prior to this interview?
    
    Not at the present time. However our main goal now is to look to establish a new Payment Gateway relationship with a different provider to offer better and lower fees on Credit Cards deposits.
    
12. Lastly, is there anything you would want to say to our readers?
    
    Yes! At the present time is very difficult to believe that you can find on Internet a Company that has as per the most important rules honesty and integrity. But this is what we are and what we do. We run our business with honesty and integrity. We already went through MoneyBookers closing account, PayPal freezing our account, a couple of members trying to cheat, one hacker playing games with one of our Egold accounts. I will not mention here how much money we lost or we have locked in frozen accounts. I will just mention that at the time I’m writing we never delayed a withdrawal, we never delayed and Egold operation, we have covered any situation timely and without giving any problem to our members even when our Bank, for example, was wrong providing a transfer to a Customer. We closed already high valued transactions (other 10,000 USD for a single transaction value) without delay and we have managed in this first period of operations nearly 600,000 USD in-out without delay, problems or receiving a single claim from our members. When some problems out of our control happened, like the Credit Card Gateway Clearing Bank charging a card twice, it happened 2 times in 8 months, we promptly take action and the member got refunded in hours from his Support Request. Maybe I should provide tens’ of emails and feedback from our members but someone will say that are fake. This is Internet, believe it or not…it is!

Thank you for your time Carlo J


Thank you for your interest Jude.

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