News Round-Up: Binary Options Banned in Israel
“Money never sleeps”. That’s the saying, right? Well, scammers seem to be lacking the need or desire to sleep as well, but fortunately for us, lately the Regulators and the Police are keeping their eyes wide open as well. Here’s a collection of news from around the World of Binary Options:
Warnings And Fines
South African independent regulator Financial Services Board has warned that Stockpair.net is not authorised as a financial institution in South Africa. The brokerage is operated by NXB Financial Services Ltd. and is regulated by the Belize International Financial Services Commission (License No. IFSC/60/346/TS/14).
Several Canadian regulators and France’s AMF have warned that this brokerage is not authorised to offer investment advice or binary options to the residents of their respective region. It must be noted that Stockpair.com is regulated by CySEC under licence number 229/14 and is not the subject of this warning. Source: Finance Magnates
Pegase Capital was licensed by the Cyprus Securities And Exchange Commission (CySEC) but has renounced its license while it was suspended and the regulator was deciding whether to revoke it completely or not (in other words “You can’t fire me because I quit”). Source: CySEC Announcement.
However, the story doesn’t end here because CySEC has decided to impose a series of fines on the directors of Pegase Capital and decided to ban the company’s owner Michel Teman from the financial sector for five years. The collective fee imposed to Pegase’s senior officers is 200,000 EUR and Michel Teman was “awarded” the biggest one: 150,000 EUR. Sources: Finance Magnates, CySEC Fines
Law To Ban Binary Options In Israel Finally Passes
Binary Options will soon be history in Israel due to the passing of a bill in the country’s Knesset parliament. After months of back and forth, lobbying and changes, the bill has been finally approved with a rare 53 – 0 vote and will become effective at the end of January 2018.
According to this new legislation, an Israel based brokerage will need to be licensed in the jurisdiction from which will take clients. It means that local firms are banned from offering binary options overseas. This is also a ban on all aspects of the binary options business, including platform providers and payment processors. Source and full story: Leaprate
Legal Battle Still Rages On In The United States
The legal proceedings continue at the Florida Middle District Court in the case of Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Scharf et al (3:17-cv-00774). The defendants include Jason B. Scharf, doing business as Citrades.com and AutoTradingBinary.com. In the case are also included his companies CIT Investments LLC, Brevspand EOOD, CIT Investments Ltd. (Marshall Islands), CIT Investments Ltd. (Anguilla) and A & J Media Partners, Inc. The case also involves their affiliates Zilmil and its owner Michael Shah.
According to allegations, the Citrades Defendants have operated a massive scam since 2013 and received at least 16 Million USD from clients, funds that were then misappropriated. The CFTC requests that the court withdraw the reference of the case to mediation, stating that Counsel for the parties have convened and reached the conclusion that mediation would not be fruitful at the time. Also the CFTC notes that the case is in its infancy and that supplementary information is needed before a settlement can be reached. Source: Finance Feeds.
Police Raid In The UK. Binary Brokers Targeted
The City of London Police, joined by representatives of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and HM Revenue & Customs have raided the offices of 20 binary options brokers located in London, with the goal of reviewing “their compliance documents and gather intelligence on different types of investment fraud”.
The raid is the biggest to date and is an attempt to make the City of London a hostile environment for scammers and fraudsters who robbed British victims of more than 10 Million Pounds during the first half of the year 2017. Source: Finance Magnates.
Wrapping It Up
So there you have it: the noose is tightening even more around the scammers’ necks. But now instead of warnings and a fine here and there we see a full-on war against scam. The Police are stepping in with raids and a hands-on approach, politicians pass laws against binary options and even senior officers of shady companies are being fined and banned from the financial world. The CFTC is not sleeping either, bringing fraudsters to court. Well, it’s time for the scammers to go away so we can trade binary options with respectable brokerages.