GSB Settlement Explained: Coverage, Claims, and Limits

The GSB settlement is a 2024 multi-jurisdictional agreement in which Josip Heit and the GSB Group companies (marketed as GS Partners, GSPartners, and Gold Standard Partners) agreed to return the full value of customer deposits, minus any prior withdrawals, to investors in 36 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and nine Canadian provinces. Refunds are paid in digital currency through an independent claims administrator, AlixPartners. The claim filing window ran from February 21, 2025 through May 22, 2025, and that deadline has passed.¹²

What the Settlement Requires

The core term is a full refund of principal. Heit and the affiliated GSB entities agreed to return the full value of all money and cryptocurrencies that customers invested or deposited, minus the value of any prior withdrawals.³

The refund math uses historical U.S. dollar values. Each deposit and withdrawal is valued as of either the transaction date or November 16, 2023, whichever came first.³ Payments to verified claimants are made in digital currency.²

Instead of paying fines or civil penalties, the respondents agreed to fund the claims process and pay verified investors directly. Each participating regulator enters a “no-admit, no-deny” consent order. The template order does not allege fraudulent, dishonest, or unethical conduct, and jurisdictions that had made those allegations in earlier enforcement orders or press releases agreed to withdraw, redact, or amend them to the extent their own rules allow.³

The settlement also cuts off the underlying products. U.S. and Canadian customers are barred from keeping their certificates, earning further interest or rewards, or rolling funds into new GSB products.¹

Who and What Is Covered

The settlement covers investors in 36 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, and in nine Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, and Saskatchewan.² The deal was structured so additional regulators could join on the same terms, and several did after the initial signing, including Tennessee in October 2024,⁴ Alberta in January 2025,⁵ and Ontario in February 2025.⁶

The products at issue were the ones the GSB Group sold from roughly 2021 onward. The flagship was the “MetaCertificate,” offered in an Elemental Series (Terra, Light, Water, Fire) and a Success Series (Rise, Grow, Prosper, and others), with promised fixed weekly returns of 2.5% to 5% plus monthly returns of 1.5%.⁷ Related products included the G999 token, XLT Vouchers (marketed as tokenized stakes in a skyscraper), and Lydian World, a metaverse platform with virtual land and staking pools.⁸

How the Claims Process Worked

AlixPartners, a global consulting firm, was appointed as the independent claims administrator. The official portal is gsbsettlement.com.⁹

To file a claim, an investor needed to submit:

A valid national ID and any know-your-customer materials previously provided to GSB.
Account details, including the email and phone number tied to the account and the GSB account username.
All wallet addresses used to interact with the platform.
Transaction records showing deposits and withdrawals.
Information about any compensation already received.¹⁰¹¹

Investors who paid GSB promoters directly through services like Zelle, CashApp, or PayPal were also encouraged to include those records.¹¹

The filing window opened on February 21, 2025 and closed 90 days later on May 22, 2025.¹¹² Regulators in states including New Jersey, California, Georgia, and Colorado publicly urged residents to file before the window closed. If you missed the deadline, the settlement itself does not offer a late-filing mechanism; any recourse would come through your state or provincial securities regulator.

What Accepting a Refund Means

Accepting a settlement offer from AlixPartners is a full release of all claims against Heit and the GSB respondents. Investors who take the payment give up the ability to pursue the same claims separately.

Watch for Scams

Regulators and AlixPartners warned that no legitimate party in this process asks investors to deposit funds or pay fees to participate. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger specifically cautioned investors to “be wary of law firms or entities falsely claiming to be connected to the settlement.”¹³ Any communication about the settlement should trace back to gsbsettlement.com or to a participating securities regulator.

What the Settlement Does Not Resolve

The agreement resolves the civil securities claims of the participating regulators against Heit and the GSB entities. It does not end other proceedings, and a few boundary points matter for anyone tracking the case.

Two other executives sit outside the deal. The Texas State Securities Board has noted that its original November 2023 emergency cease and desist order is final and not subject to appeal as to Dirc Zahlmann, the company’s former chief operating officer, and Bruce Innes Wylde Hughes, its former corporate trainer, and that neither appears to be covered by the settlement Heit negotiated.¹⁴

Texas has also alleged that Heit, Zahlmann, and Hughes began promoting new products in late 2024, including an “Apertum” blockchain, associated APTM tokens, and a related entity called “DAO1.” Regulators there issued a new emergency cease and desist order naming all three.¹⁴ If you invested in Apertum, APTM, or DAO1, those funds are not part of the GSB refund program.

Criminal exposure is a separate track. A cross-border investigative report stated that the County State Attorney’s Office in Split-Dalmatia County, Croatia, is investigating Heit for suspected money laundering, with the office confirming that “investigative measures were being carried out and were confidential.” The same reporting noted Heit had previously served a prison sentence in Luxembourg, and that authorities in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa were also scrutinizing his operations.¹⁵ None of that is affected by the civil settlement.

Finally, the settlement is jurisdiction-specific. It covers investors in the participating U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the nine listed Canadian provinces. Investors outside those jurisdictions were not part of the AlixPartners claims program on the same terms, and would need to look to their own regulators for any parallel action.

1
California DFPI. DFPI Secures Settlement With GSPartners
2
GSB Settlement. GSB Settlement FAQ
3
Texas State Securities Board. GSB Multi-Jurisdictional Term Sheet
4
Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance. TDCI Division of Securities Announces Tennessee’s Participation in Multistate Settlement
5
Alberta Securities Commission. ASC Signs Onto Multi-Jurisdiction Settlement With GSB Gold Standard, GS Partners
6
Ontario Securities Commission. OSC Joins Multi-Jurisdiction Settlement With GS Partners
7
California DFPI. Desist and Refrain Order, GSB Gold Standard Bank Ltd
8
NASAA. State, Provincial Securities Regulators Settlement With Josip Heit, GS Partners
9
GSB Settlement. Gold Standard Bank Settlement Program
10
Georgia Secretary of State. Investor Notice, GSB Group and Its Affiliates
11
GSB Settlement. GSB Settlement Supporting Documents
12
New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. New Jersey Investors Have Until May 22 to File Claims for Refunds From GS Partners
13
Georgia Secretary of State. Raffensperger Announces GSB Settlement Process for Georgia Investors
14
BEKM. GSB Emergency Cease and Desist Order, ENF-25-CDO-1889
15
Journalism Fund. Empire of Deception