On September 29, 2021, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) filed charges against fourteen organizations for failure to properly register as a futures commission merchant (“FCM”) or making misleading statement about its registration with the CFTC or membership with the National Futures Association (“NFA”). The fourteen complaints demands that each company cease and desist from continuing to violate the Commodity Exchange Act and various CFTC regulations.
Acting Director Vincent McGonagle, Division of Enforcement, stated that these actions demonstrate the “CFTC’s dedicated efforts to aggressively root out bad actors falsely claiming to hold legitimate registrations and protect the trading public.”
According to the CFTC Press Release, twelve of the fourteen complaints allege failure to register as an FCM. The complaints state that these entities offered the opportunity to purchase dual options based on the value of a commodity, including foreign and cryptocurrencies, while encouraging its customers to transfer money or assets to them. The following twelve organizations have been accused of not registering as an FCM:
- Tradingforexpay
- Cryptofxtrader
- Bitfxprofit
- Globalnationfx
- BinanceFxTrade
- MaxForexOption
- ProCryptoMinners
- ProFX-Capitals
- Smarter Signals
- Prime Expert Trade
- Star Fx Pro
- Excotradeoptions
The press release also explains that the remaining two complaints allege that Climax Capital FX and Digitalexchange24.com improperly claimed, explicitly, to be registered with the CFTC and NFA. The NFA ID provided were identical to one another; however, the NFA ID used belonged to an individual who is deceased since 2009.
For more information, see the CFTC Press Release Number 8434-21 on this matter.