The companies are sued under the 2008 Farm Bill, the Dodd-Frank Act and the CFTC’s regulations. The 11 new lawsuits join 14 previous ones, making the total number 25.
Some of the firms are based in the US, while others are from the British Virgin Islands, Belize, the UK, Australia and Cyprus. Here are their names:
- 1st Investment Management, LLC, a Wyoming LLC;
- City Credit Capital, (UK) Ltd., a United Kingdom company;
- Enfinium Pty Ltd., an Australian company;
- GBFX, LLC, a New York LLC;
- Gold & Bennett, LLC, a New York LLC;
- InterForex, Inc., a British Virgin Islands company;
- Lucid Financial, Inc., a Utah corporation;
- MF Financial, Ltd., a Belize company with offices in New York City;
- O.C.M. Online Capital Markets Limited, a British Virgin Islands company
- Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd. a Cyprus company; and
- Windsor Brokers, Ltd., a Cyprus company.
The official goal of the lawsuits is to make the forex market safer for investors. This enforces the regulations that took effect in October 2010, which caught attention mostly due to the 50:1 leverage limits.
In 9 out of 11 cases, the CFTC claims that the brokers traded against the clients. In the other two, the brokers are blamed for not being registered as Introducing Brokers. The CFTC’s complaints seek civil monetary penalties, trading and registration bans, disgorgement, and rescission.
The previous 14 cases, which were filed in January, most of the companies reached a settlement or defaulted. The remaining three lawsuits are still pending.
More from the official press release can be found here.
What do you think?
Are you trading with one of the companies listed above?