Scammers may try to win your trust by saying they are regulated by an organization that sounds legitimate. If they mention a 'fake regulator' featured on the list below, you know the offer is a scam.

The international organizations listed below are fake entities and no genuine government regulators exist under these names. Do not deal with them.

American Futures and Options Exchange
American Futures and Options Trading Commission (AFOTC)
Bureau of Foreign Security Affairs
Commodities Futures Trading Commission - www.cftc.org.au
(Please note that this fake regulator should not be confused with the legitimate US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission which is http://www.cftc.gov/)
Duetsche Anstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (DAFIN) - www.dafin.org
Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Frankfurt (FSRAF) - www.fsraf.org
Foreign Shareholders Protection Department
Forensic Financial Fraud Investigators
Frankfurt Financial Supervisory Authority - www.ffsauthority.com
Hong Kong Financial Services Authority
Hong Kong Financial Trading Authority (HKFTA)
Hong Kong Futures and Options Exchange (HKFOX)
International Association of Transfer Agents
International Compliance Commission
International Equity Commission
International Exchange Regulatory Commission
International Organization of Securities Commission - www.iosc-us.com
International Regulatory Commission
International Securities Tax Commission
International Shareholder Agency
Japan Futures Trading Fund (JFTB) - www.jftb.org/eng/
Japan Options and Futures Trading Board - www.joftb.org
National Mergers and Acquisitions Board
National Shareholder Protection Agency
Offshore Commodity Futures Dealers Association (OCFDA)
Offshore Futures Securities Association
Offshore Investors Protection Association
Options and Futures Trade Commission
Regulatory Association Of Offshore Investment Managers
Regulatory Compliance Commission
Securities Regulatory and Investment Board
Sicfex Swiss International Commodities Futures Exchange
Swiss Commodities Futures Exchange
Thompson Brennan Stanley
Transfer Exchange Corporation
US Securities Investigative Committee
US Stock Regulators
World Options Exchange - www.woptex.com
Worldwide Securities Investment Comission - www.asic-capital.com

Our list of International Regulatory Authorities is genuine and we check it on a regular basis to ensure that it is kept up to date.

 

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that a federal court entered an order of default judgment and permanent injunction against Total Call Group, Inc. (aka TPFX, Inc., Power Play FX) of Frisco, Texas, and its principals, Craig B. Poe, also of Frisco, and Thomas Patrick Thurmond (aka Patrick Thurmond) of San Antonio, Texas.

The court’s order requires Poe and Thurmond, respectively, to pay a civil monetary penalty of $3.24 million and $1.62 million and holds Total Call Group jointly and severally liable for the payment of these amounts.

The CFTC complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on September 29, 2010, alleges that, beginning in at least early 2006 and continuing until October 2008, the defendants solicited approximately $808,000 from at least four customers for the purpose of trading off-exchange forex contracts. As alleged, the defendants deposited and/or pooled approximately $800,000 of these funds into three forex trading accounts held at Forex Capital Markets LLC (FXCM), a registered futures commission merchant (FCM). In soliciting the funds, Thurmond allegedly made false representations to one or more of Total Call Group’s customers, including that Poe had been trading forex and living off the income for more than four years and that he and Poe had personally provided more than $1 million to Total Call Group for the purpose of trading forex.

At the end of August 2008 the defendants sustained trading losses and incurred FCM fees totaling approximately 90 percent of the balance in the forex trading accounts. However, the defendants did not report these substantial losses to customers. Rather, the defendants continued to promote the profitability of trading, solicited additional customer funds and lost almost all of the remaining funds by November 2008.

From September through December 2008, Poe willfully made and sent false reports and statements to customers that overstated profits and/or failed to disclose trading losses and falsely reported customers’ account balances. Poe sent several of the false statements to customers after the trading accounts were fully liquidated on November 13, 2008.

Read the full release at CFTC

We reported on February 15th that ACJ Capital, Inc. had been nabbed by the CFTC for fraud and misappropriation in a $1 million off-exchange leveraged foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme.

Today, CFTC announced that it obtained a federal court consent order requiring defendants Angel F. Collazo (Collazo), of Salinas, Puerto Rico, and his company, ACJ Capital, Inc. (ACJ), jointly and severally to pay $1,544,252 of restitution, to disgorge $550,590 of ill-gotten gains, and to pay a $1,666,770 civil monetary penalty for fraudulently soliciting customers to trade off-exchange leveraged foreign currency (forex) contracts and issuing false statements to conceal trading losses.

Read the full complaint at CFTC.

Washington, DC — The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced that on February 8, 2012, it filed a federal court action in the District of Puerto Rico charging Angel Fernando Collazo of Salinas, Puerto Rico, and his companies, ACJ Capital, Inc. (ACJ) and Solid View Capital LLC (Solid View), both of San Juan, with fraud and misappropriation in a $1 million off-exchange leveraged foreign currency (forex) Ponzi scheme. On February 9, 2012, the court entered a statutory restraining order freezing the defendants’ assets. On February 14, 2012, the court entered a consent preliminary injunction maintaining the asset freeze and barring defendants from violating various anti-fraud and registration provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and Commission regulations.

The CFTC complaint alleges that Collazo and his companies fraudulently solicited commodity pool participants by falsely claiming profitable returns, while minimizing and failing to fully disclose the risks of trading leveraged forex. The defendants allegedly misappropriated pool funds to make payments to pool participants and for personal uses, failed to disclose their intended uses of pool participant funds, misrepresented the profitability of pool trading accounts, and distributed statements to ACJ/Solid View pool participants that contained false account values, including showing consistent, substantial trading profits.

Read more at CFTC.

Washington, DC - The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of an enforcement action against Christopher B. Cornett of Buda, Texas, charging him with solicitation fraud, issuing false account statements, misappropriating pool participants’ funds, and failing to register in connection with an off-exchange foreign currency (forex) fraud.

According to the CFTC complaint, filed on February 2, 2012, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, from at least June 2008 through at least October 2011, Cornett solicited prospective pool participants to provide funds for a pooled investment in forex. Cornett acted as the manager and operator of the pool, which was referred to at various times as ITLDU, ICM, International Forex Management, LLC and/or IFM, LLC. In soliciting prospective pool participants for the forex pool, Cornett allegedly falsely told prospective pool participants that, while there were weeks when Cornett either lost money or broke even trading forex, Cornett had never experienced a losing month or a losing year trading forex.

During the period from June 18, 2008, through September 2010, Cornett allegedly solicited approximately $7.07 million from pool participants, pool participants redeemed approximately $1.64 million and Cornett lost approximately $4.17 million of the pool’s funds trading forex. During this period, Cornett allegedly had only one profitable month trading forex with pool funds. As a result, Cornett allegedly misappropriated approximately $1.26 million of the pool’s funds. Furthermore, most, if not all, of the profits, losses and account balances that Cornett reported to pool participants were false, according to the complaint.

From October 2010 through October 2011, Cornett allegedly solicited an additional approximately $6.95 million from pool participants, and pool participants redeemed an additional approximately $2.22 million. During this period, Cornett transferred approximately $1.81 million of pool participant funds to accounts at three foreign firms and lost all but approximately $1,600 trading forex, according to the complaint. Cornett also is alleged to have transferred approximately $1.56 million of pool participant funds to three additional foreign firms during this period. Because Cornett was acting as a commodity pool operator (CPO) from October 18, 2010, through at least October 13, 2011, he was required to be registered as a CPO. As of October 13, 2011, Cornett allegedly had failed to register as a CPO.

CFTC.