The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed charges against 14 entities for either failing to register as futures commission merchants (FCMs) or else making false and misleading claims of having CFTC registration and National Futures Association (NFA) membership. The CFTC is pursuing cease and desist orders for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations as charged.
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. The CFTC states that none of these entities have ever registered as an FCM. At least 12 of these platforms allegedly operated out of New York.
Vincent McGonagle, Acting Director of the Division of Enforcement, commented:
“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.”
The platforms of the entities are listed below.
- Complaint and Notice: TradingForexPay
- Complaint and Notice: Cryptofxtrader
- Complaint and Notice: Bitfxprofit
- Complaint and Notice: Globalnationfx
- Complaint and Notice: BinanceFX Trade
- Complaint and Notice: MaxForexOption
- Complaint and Notice: ProCryptoMinners
- Complaint and Notice: ProFX-Capitals
- Complaint and Notice: Smarter Signals
- Complaint and Notice: Prime Expert Trade
- Complaint and Notice: Star Fx Pro
- Complaint and Notice: Excotradeoptions
- Complaint and Notice: Climax Capital FX
- Complaint and Notice: Digitalexchange24.com
The CFTC strongly urged the public to verify a company’s CFTC registration before committing funds.