A few hours ago, Simona Weinglass of The Times of Israel reported on the complaint that the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) brought against the former owners of the massive binary options scheme GreyMountain Management (GMM).
As part of a $233 million global conspiracy, the three Canadian-Israeli brothers David, Jonathan, and Joshua Cartu fraudulently solicited Canadians to trade binary options, defrauding citizens of Ontario out of $1.4 million. The OSC has brought civil charges against them. The study claims that the Cartu brothers travelled from Ontario to Israel within the past ten years. They socialised with the aristocracy of Israel and led “flashy lifestyles,” dating models, and competing in high-end vehicle races.
Media has provided us with detailed reports on numerous occasions regarding the GMM scheme and the numerous victims it has affected on all continents. The OSC accusation mentions dozens of bogus brands that the scheme operated, including BeeOptions and Glenridge Capital. Between 2014 and 2017, the Cartu brothers, in collaboration with their Israeli associate Uri Katz and their partner Wirecard, ran numerous binary options scams, either on their own or through intermediaries. Our source, a former insider, supplied us with copious evidence.
The unique aspect of the presently bankrupt Wirecard is that the Cartu brothers and GMM were partners with Michelle Molloy, the former CEO of Wirecard UK & Ireland, and her family.
Apart from Wirecard, another payment processor involved in the GMM was the Israeli FinTech Group, led by Eyal Nachum and Tamir Zolvski. This can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt based on the KYC documentation that Media has access to. It is to be determined whether these payment processors genuinely entered into the contracts.
Wirecard
The former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives of German payment processor and financial services firm Wirecard AG have been detained or linked to criminal cases. Wirecard AG is insolvent. The business revealed that €1.9 billion in cash went missing in June 2020. Its debt was €3.2 billion. The company was dismantled in November 2020 after selling Santander Bank the assets of its primary business unit for €100 million. Its units in Brazil, the UK, and North America were among the other properties that had previously been sold for undisclosed sums. In addition to providing risk management and electronic payment transaction services, the business also issued and processed virtual and physical cards. The business was a part of and listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange as of 2017. As of 2017, the company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was a part of the DAX stock index from September 2018 to August 2020.
The business is at the heart of a global financial scandal. Since the company’s founding, there have been claims of accounting malpractices, which peaked in 2019 when the Financial Times released a number of investigations, internal papers, and whistleblower accusations. Wirecard declared bankruptcy on June 25, 2020, in response to information that €1.9 billion was “missing”. After that, veteran CEO Markus Braun resigned and was taken into custody. After losing his job and board seat, the former COO Jan Marsalek vanished and is still pursued by German authorities. From 2020 onward, he has been listed as Europe’s Most Wanted.
In a statement released on August 25, 2020, the court-appointed insolvency administrator said that “it has since been possible to stabilise the ongoing business and create a basis for its continuation under the preliminary insolvency administration.” The statement announced the upcoming layoff of all management board members as well as approximately 730 staff, citing the need for “far-reaching cuts in order to make any kind of continuation possible.”
Munich public prosecutors filed fraud, breach of trust, and accounting manipulation charges against former CEO Markus Braun in March 2022. He might spend up to 15 years in jail if he is found guilty on all of these counts. Up until the start of the trial, Braun was detained in pretrial custody at the Stadelheim prison.
Fraud
Fraud is defined by law as the deliberate use of deception to get unfair or illegal benefit or to deny a victim their legal rights. Fraud can be illegal under civil or criminal law; for example, a victim of fraud may sue the perpetrator to stop the fraud or obtain financial compensation; or fraud may not result in any loss of money, property, or legal rights but nevertheless constitute a component of another civil or criminal wrong. The goal of fraud can be financial gain or other advantages, such as getting a passport, travel visa, driver’s licence, or mortgage fraud, in which case the offender makes false claims in an effort to qualify for a mortgage.
- It could be a warning sign that your broker is not acting in your best interests if they do not reply to you.
- Make sure there are no complaints, do your homework, and carefully study all the fine print on paperwork to ensure you are not being taken advantage of by a dishonest broker.
- Before attempting a withdrawal, try starting a modest account with a small balance and making trades for a month.
- Your broker might be churning if you notice purchase and sell transactions for assets that don’t align with your goals.
- Before pursuing more extreme measures, go over all of your documentation and talk through your options if you are trapped with a terrible broker.
Are You Already in a Bad Broker’s Trap?
Regretfully, there aren’t many solutions available right now. Still, there are a few options available to you. Make sure your broker is genuinely at fault by first carefully going over all of the documentation. It might be your fault if you overlooked something or didn’t read the documents you signed.
Next, talk about what you will do if the broker doesn’t give you a satisfactory response to your inquiries or a withdrawal. One way to take action could be to report the broker to FINRA or the relevant national regulating agency, or you could make comments online.
The Final Word
Brokers are sometimes to blame for traders’ losses, even if traders sometimes hold them accountable. Before opening an account, a trader should be rigorous in their research on potential brokers. If the broker passes this scrutiny, the trader should make a small deposit, make a few trades, and then withdraw their money. If all goes according to plan, a bigger deposit may be made.
If things are already bad for you, though, you should confirm that the broker is engaging in illicit activity (like churning), make an effort to get your questions addressed, and if that doesn’t work, you should report the broker to the SEC, FINRA, or another regulatory agency that has the authority to take legal action against them.
