MUST READ::CFTC Sues 14 Forex Companies FXOPEN,Investech and the rest

One good part of the new CFTC regulations from last year is that the CFTC has some amazing new enforcement powers. I just got a note from a good friend of the FPA about the CFTC suing 14 forex brokers.

Many of these brokers are very well known to the FPA. Some are on good terms with the FPA. Some aren't. All are invited to post public responses here about their point of view.

Here's the press release....

RELEASE: PR5974-11

January 26, 2011

CFTC SUES 14 FOREIGN CURRENCY FIRMS IN NATIONWIDE SWEEP

Action represents first use of new authority under the 2008 Farm Bill and Dodd-Frank Act to regulate foreign exchange dealers.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that it simultaneously filed 13 enforcement actions in Federal District Courts in Chicago, the District of Columbia, Kansas City and New York, alleging that 14 entities are illegally soliciting members of the public to engage in foreign currency (forex) transactions and that they are operating without being registered with the CFTC.

Today’s actions are the first taken by the CFTC to enforce new forex regulations that became effective in October 2010. These new regulations require entities that wish to participate in the forex market to register with the CFTC and abide by regulations intended to protect the public. These regulations require that forex dealers take steps to protect investors, including maintaining capital and records, which will reduce risk and increase transparency.

The following companies were sued by the CFTC as part of this sweep:

EuroForex Development LLC, a Delaware LLC;

FIG Solutions Limited, Inc., a Delaware corporation;

ForInvest, a Delaware corporation;

FXOpen Investments Inc., a Delaware LLC;

FXPRICE, a Delaware LLC;

GIGFX, L.L.C., a Delaware company;

InovaTrade, Inc., a company with purported offices in Florida;

InstaTrade Corporation d/b/a InstaForex, a British Virgin Islands company;

InvesttechFX Technologies, Inc., a Canadian corporation located in Toronto;

J&K Futures, Inc., a company with purported offices in California and New York;

Kingdom Forex Trading and Futures, Ltd., a Nevada company;

Prime Forex, LLC, a Delaware LLC;

Wall Street Brokers, LLC, a Delaware LLC; and

ZtradeFX LLC, a Connecticut LLC.

In the forex market, entities known as Retail Foreign Exchange Dealers (RFED) or Futures Commission Merchants (FCM) may buy foreign currency contracts from or sell foreign currency contracts to individual investors. Under the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC Regulations, an entity acting as an RFED or FCM must register with the Commission and abide by rules and regulations designed for investor protection, including those relating to minimum capital requirements, recordkeeping and compliance. Further, with a few exceptions, such an entity also must be registered with the Commission if it solicits or accepts orders from US investors in connection with forex transactions conducted at an RFED or FCM.

In all but two of the complaints, the CFTC alleges that a defendant acted as an RFED; that is, it offered to take or took the opposite side of a customer’s forex transaction without being registered. In the remaining two complaints, ZtradeFX LLC and FXPRICE, the CFTC alleges that the defendant solicited customers to place forex trades at an RFED without being registered as an Introducing Broker. In every complaint, the CFTC alleges that the defendant solicited or accepted orders from US investors to enter into forex transactions in violation of the Act. The CFTC has moved for preliminary injunctions preventing these defendants from operating unless and until they comply with the CEA and Commission Regulations. The CFTC’s complaints also seek civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, disgorgement and rescission.

The CFTC strongly urges the public to check whether a company is registered before investing funds. If a company is not registered, an investor should be wary of providing funds to that company.

A company’s registration status can be found at: BASIC Search

The CFTC also strongly urges members of the public to visit the below websites before investing money in the forex market:

CFTC Consumer Advisory: Forex Fraud: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

CFTC Consumer Advisory: Foreign Currency 'Forex' Fraud

Fraud Advisory from the CFTC: Foreign Currency Trading (Forex) Fraud

CFTC Fraud Advisories - CFTC

Foreign Exchange Currency Fraud: CFTC/NASAA Investor Alert

Foreign Currency Trading - CFTC

The CFTC Division of Enforcement staff members responsible for these cases are: Margaret Aisenbrey, Kathleen Banar, Barry Blankfield, Kim Bruno, Jennifer Chapin, Elizabeth Davis, James Deacon, Jennifer Diamantis, Rick Glaser, Patricia Gomersall, Amanda Harding, Jessica Harris, Paul Hayeck, Lenel Hickson, Rosemary Hollinger, William Janulis, Joseph Konizeski, Jeffrey Le Riche, Charles Marvine, Judith McCorkle, Joy McCormack, Vincent McGonagle, Kenneth McCracken, Stephen Obie, Nathan Ploener, Eliud Ramirez, Stephanie Reinhart, Xavier Romeu-Matta, Christine Ryall, Veronica Spicer, Elizabeth Streit, Manal Sultan, Lara Turcik, Stephen Turley, Richard Wagner and Scott Williamson.

The CFTC thanks the National Futures Association for its assistance in this matter.

Last Updated: January 26, 2011

Media Contacts
Dennis Holden
202-418-5088

Office of Public Affairs

The original is at www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/pr5974-11.html
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Mmmmmm, FXOpen. I see their name come up again and again around the place and not in a good way. And wasn't it FXOpen that ran a contest on myfxbook?

Run, run as fast as you can;
You can't catch me, I'm the Gingerbread Man.

FXOpen is an excellent company. I have traded through them and others. I would venture to say that they are as good if not better than any other company. Before you jump to conclusions, you should research a bit. try finding FXOpen in the Delaware corporate registry. I hunted for them when i first heard about this lawsuit because i was under the impression that they had no US presence. I have tried to find them in the registry for several days now. The registry still keeps saying they don't exsist. I think this is just the American government trying to dictate world policy again. I hope they fail to win this lawsuit against FXOpen and any of the other legitimate brokers on their attack list. If they win, before long everyone one is going to have 50:1 leverage and no hedging rules.

fxopen has a us phone number and is using a us based server is what is said in the complaint. CFTC has zero chance of every collecting from any of these brokers so it is a total joke and a waste of goverment tax payer money.

I too can vouch for FxOpen.. and I can say they ARE the BEST broker I've used. Plus they are true ECN! I do hope they stand tall against our tyrannical government, and I pray God blesses then with a victory!

Well I have done some reading and right now you can not login to there main web site. The USA has banned or turned off access to there website for USA people. Right now I saw somewhere that they are right now no longer taking US investors. But if you are already forexing with them you can still access your traders screen through a different link. Good luck to those with FXopen I am sure they will be fine.

I personally am forexing with them, and although I can see my money in the VPS account that I have, I cannot access my account through fxopen AT ALL. I have lost confidence, and wanted to withdraw my money, yet I have no way to contact the company. I cannot access them through the web in any way, and I cannot access them through the two phone numbers that I have, because NO ONE PICKS UP THE PHONE!!!
I have two thousand with these people, in two accounts, neither of which can I access to withdraw my money.........
If there is anyone here who has any idea what to do if you are a US customer, could ya let me know????????😡😭

Hello yoshi54,
Please go to this link.....cabinet.fxopen.com/
From here you can access your accounts....
You will have no problems withdrawing from them.

If you used alertpay to deposit your funds, then you need to open a moneybookers account...get that all set up and then put in for the withdrawl to moneybookers in which you just created....
You will be able to receive your funds....I had over 3k with them and now I have it all....Tedious task, but they will let you withdraw.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Oh and dont panic if you cant access your accounts tonight or Thursday.....see statement from FX OPEN below:


Dear Clients,

The FXOpen web-site and MyFXOpen personal area will be inaccessible for several hours due to planned technical maintenance on 23-24 February, 2011.

Please, note that the Forum and the Live Chat service will be operating though. If you need immediate assistance during the web-site downtime, please, visit FXOpen Live Chat at https://livesupport.fxopen.com/Chat.aspx.

We do apologize for the inconveniences and will endeavour to keep the downtime to the minimum.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

FXOpen Team


But once this is fixed, you will be fine...dont worry.....

Thanks,
Bill

I can support Bill in that. Everything is business as usual for FXOpen. I have been making quite a lot of money working through them. I know they have a lot of US clients and very much do not want to lose them. There are a lot of bad brokers out there, but FXOpen is not one of them. The CFTC is just going after them because they are in a position that the CFTC has not been able to control. They are grasping at straws trying to gain complete control and are using whatever means necessary. Worst case senario, FXOpen will have to move their US located online servers overseas. The CFTC is stepping outside their authority because they are trying to tell the internet (or international community) what it is allowed to do. If the CFTC banned access to outside brokerages via the internet...there would be a massive surge against them by the vast majority of US citizens and organizations. I don't think the CFTC is brave, or stupid, enough to attempt that.

Also, you can easily access your account through one of their other internet portals. I generally use https://www.fxegypt.com.

Okay, I panicked for no reason.....I can access everything now, and I feel much more confident than I did last night. I have withdrawn money from them before, and never had any problems at all with them, but this CFTC thing got me all worried, especially when I couldn't get through the other night, even using cabinet.fxopen.com
It is all good now though, and thanks so much for the help, it is certainly appreciated!!!!😄😁