According to the announcement, none of these companies were registered as Futures Commission Traders (FCM), but they were making false claims that they have CFTC registration and National Futures Association (NFA) membership.
These marked trading platforms are:
- Tradingforexpay
- Cryptofxtrader
- Bitfxprofit
- Globalnationfx
- BinanceFxTrade
- MaxForexOption
- ProCryptoMinners
- ProFX-Capitals
- Smarter Signals
- Prime Expert Trade
- Star Fx Pro
- Excotradeoptions
- Climax Capital FX
- Digitalexchange24.com.
These platforms have been offering binary options with currency pairs and cryptocurrencies
What Did the CFTC Say?
Twelve of the complaints allege that the entities are acting as FCMs by offering to the general public the opportunity to purchase binary options based on the value of commodities like foreign currencies and cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and encourage customers to transfer money or assets to them. However, none of these entities have ever registered as an FCM.
Also, two complaints filed allege the entities offer services related to trading in futures or other derivative products and falsely claim to be registered with the CFTC and a member of NFA. Climax Capital FX, allegedly located in Walsall, United Kingdom, and Houston, Texas, and Digitalexchange24.com, allegedly located in Jasper, Arkansas.
Read here the full CFTC statement
“Today’s actions reflect the CFTC’s dedicated efforts to aggressively root out bad actors falsely claiming to hold legitimate registrations and protect the trading public,” said Division of Enforcement Acting Director Vincent McGonagle.”
Tradewell Is in Trouble
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against defendants Tradewale LLC, of Illinois, andTradewale Managed Fund, of the United Kingdom, (collectively, Tradewale), and Valdas Dapkus, also of Illinois, charging the defendants with misappropriation fraud and Tradewale with solicitation fraud for trading off-exchange retail foreign currency (forex) and acting as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) without CFTC registration.
According to the complaint, through its website, tradewale.com, as well as various social media platforms, Tradewale fraudulently solicited members of the public to deposit funds into accounts managed by Tradewale for the purported purpose of buying and selling investment products, including forex. Through such solicitations, Tradewale persuaded at least 15 individuals to transfer at least $ 700,000 to Tradewale.