On Dec 1, 2020, the U.S. CFTC’s Division of Enforcement published its annual report for Fiscal Year 2020 (FY 2020). CFTC enforcement actions during FY 2020 resulted in $1,327,869,760 in ordered monetary relief, the fourth-highest total on record, and the third straight year-over-year increase.
It took two years before the UK regulator followed FCA after the U.S. CFTC’s Regulatory Enforcement Action and fined the FCA-licensed FX broker TFS-ICAP for fraudulent trading practices. FCA recently announced that it has imposed a £3.44 million financial penalty on TFS-ICAP Ltd for market misconduct.
The U.S. Prosecutors charge the BitMex founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed along with the senior manager Gregory Dwyer with (a) violating the Bank Secrecy Act and (b) conspiring to violate the Bank Secrecy Act, by willfully failing to establish, implement, and maintain an anti-money laundering (“AML”) program at the crypto exchange or BitMEX. The charges each carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
While the CySEC looks away from cryptocurrencies, the U.S. authorities and regulators proceed strictly and consistently in this regard. The U.S. CFTC and U.S. Government announced law enforcement actions action charging the BitMEX co-founders and executives Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo, Samuel Reed, Gregory Dwyer, and their legal entities with operating an unregistered trading platform and violating multiple CFTC regulations as well as the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act.
FinTelegram has been reporting on the vast global binary options scam scheme around the GreyMountain Management Ltd (“GMM”) of the Cartu brothers. Joshua “Josh” Cartu has contacted FinTelegram via email several times, purported to have nothing to do with the GMM’s fraud scheme, and pointed to his brothers. The U.S. CFTC sees it differently and have filed a fraud complaint against him and his brothers. The end of a lavish lifestyle and Instagram celebrity?
It is often a challenge for regulators, law enforcement agencies, or attorneys for victims of scams to identify the scammers and serve the complaint on them. Scammers, like other cybercriminals, like to hide behind offshore companies and trustees. Specialized companies like Wilfred Services Ltd on St. Vincent & the Grenadines facilitate scammers with their services. …
Offshore Challenge – CFTC complaint was served on Wilfred Services. Read More »
On Sept 24, 2020, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a complaint against PaxForex (www.paxforex.com), an offshore CFD broker operated by Laino Group Limited which is a company registered on St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The Commission alleges that PaxForex is offering services without having the legally required FCM registration. PaxForex is accepting cryptocurrencies as a means of settlement.
The Israeli boiler room CEO Lee Elbaz was already convicted of investment fraud by a U.S. jury in August 2019. She must serve 22 years in prison and repay $28 million to investors. In Vienna, the Israeli Gal Barak has been sentenced to four years imprisonment without probation and the confiscated millions will be repaid to his victims. In the U.S. and Canada, regulators are suing the notorious Canadian-Israeli Cartu Brothers for binary options fraud. Accusations of lies and systematic manipulation are the very essence of the charges and complaints.
We have recently requested information on the whereabouts of the two beneficial owners behind the binary options fraud scheme being pursued by the U.S. authorities around the Israeli Yukom Communications Ltd. Specifically, we wanted to know the whereabouts of Yossi Herzog, the former boss and teacher of the already convicted Lee Elbaz. Rumors in Tel Aviv wanted to know that he is in Russia. In fact, however, he might be in Odessa, Ukraine.
