ASIC announced earlier today that has permanently banned Mr Shun Yuen Ken Li (also known as Leo Lee) from providing financial services. Mr Li was banned after pleading guilty and being convicted of two counts of dishonestly using his position as an employee of GAIN Capital Australia Pty Ltd with the intention of gaining an…
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The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a Salt Lake City-based brokerage firm, Alpine Securities Corporation, with securities law violations related to its alleged practice of clearing transactions for microcap stocks that were used in manipulative schemes to harm investors. To help detect potential securities law and money laundering violations, broker-dealers are required to…
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Australian financial regulator ASIC has announced that it has banned Sean Nofal from providing financial services for three years. ASIC found that on two occasions Mr Nofal's conduct fell far short of the standard that would reasonably be expected of a competent financial services provider. ASIC also found that Mr Nofal did not have sufficient…
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U.S. Securities industry regulator Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) announced today that it has barred former Morgan Stanley Smith Barney registered representative John Batista Bocchino for concealing approximately $190 million in Venezuelan bond trades from the firm, which had restricted such trading due to the regulatory, anti-money laundering and reputational risks it posed. Instead, Bocchino…
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Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) keeps updating its Warning List, with the latest addition being City Bank. The company claims to have an address in Switzerland: Square de l'académie, 1205 Genf and is operating at www.citybank-us.com. The inclusion of City Bank in FINMA’s Warning List means that it might be operating without a licence although…
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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has put out details of the cloned firm Riverside Escrow Ltd. Fraudsters are using the details of firms, authorised by the FCA, to try to convince people that they work for a genuine, authorised firm. Fraudsters are using or giving out the following details as part of their tactics…
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ASIC announced that the Federal Court of Australia has ordered that Macro Realty Developments Pty Ltd, Macro Realty Developments AFSL Pty Ltd, Macro All State Investments and Securities Ltd, Pilbara Property Developments Pty Ltd, Macro Realty Pty Ltd and 511 GTN Pty Ltd ('Macro Group', and Ms Desiree Veronica Macpherson is a director of all…
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Cyprus financial regulator CySEC has announced the 'partial suspension' of the CIF license granted to retail forex broker XTrade Europe Ltd., which operates the XTrade.com and XForex.com websites. The reason for the suspension? Marketing issues. CySEC stated that XTrade's marketing materials and ads do not seem to be fair, clear and not misleading. And by issuing…
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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has put out details of the cloned firm Cash Loans For You. Fraudsters are using the details of firms, authorised by the FCA, to try to convince people that they work for a genuine, authorised firm. Fraudsters are using or giving out the following details as part of their…
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The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has issued today a Communication regarding the launch of reference data submission under the Market Abuse Regulation (MAR). With today’s communication, ESMA announces that its IT system for the collection of financial instrument reference data under MAR (i.e. the Financial Instrument Reference Data System – FIRDS) will become…
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