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    Keep Problem discussions civil and lay out the facts of your case. Your goal should be to get your problem resolved or reported to the regulators, not to see how many insults you can put into the thread.

    More info coming soon.

Problem Big, Swiss, and Bankrupt

I am having an issue with a company
Crown Forex SA used to be a solid and well regarded broker. Sometime last fall, withdrawals became a huge issue. Over a dozen FPA members complained and FPA Investigator Tessa spent a large amount of time communicating with Crown Forex over the issue. After a great deal of effort, some people got all of their money and others got some. Still, a number of account holders got nothing at all.

The situation got so far out of control that we asked FPA member Pharaoh to write an article on the subject warning people not to invest with Crown until these issues could be dealt with. Not too long afterwards, we issued a new warning when we found out that the Swiss banking regulators.

We've been awaiting an update on this issue for a long time. Yesterday, the FPA received a number of emails, reviews, and forum postings about Crown Forex being in bankruptcy and that it would be liquidated. The use of a .info address in the original copy we received made us worry that the message might have been fake. Rather than immediately issuing a warning, we decided to wait until we could get full confirmation of the validity of the message.

We had 2 FPA members who are victims of Crown contact the investigators who have control of Crown. Our members confirm that the investigators appointed by FINMA confirmed the message. We also contacted FINMA. We got this directly from Christina Bürgi at FINMA...

The following message was sent to Crown Forex SA’s customers by the FINMA liquidators:

Dear clients,

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has rendered on May 18, 2009 a decision opening the bankruptcy of CROWN FOREX SA as of Tuesday May 19, 2009 at 08:00 am (Swiss time).

The decision will be published on May 29, 2009 at 10:00 am (Swiss time).

Philippe von BREDOW and Laurent WINKELMANN have been appointed as bankruptcy liquidators by the FINMA.

Effective immediately, as of the date and time of the bankruptcy opening, the activities of CROWN FOREX SA are suspended, the company, its Directors and officers are forbidden to make or receive payments, and all the clients’ open positions are closed.

We thank you to communicate to the liquidators, until June 30, 2009, in writing the following :

1. Account Number and relevant details;
2. Open positions as of Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 08:00 (Swiss time), together with supporting documents thereof;
3. Any additional claim you may have toward CROWN FOREX SA;
4. Any debt you may have toward CROWN FOREX SA.

Sincerely

Philippe von BREDOW - Laurent WINKELMANN

NOTTER MEGEVAND & PARTNERS
Place Edouard-Claparède 3
1205 Genève
SWITZERLAND
p.vonbredow@nomea.ch
l.winkelmann@nomea.ch



The information is correct and was sent by the FINMA liquidators of Crown Forex SA. We confirm the content of the message of the FINMA liquidators.

Kind regards


Simone Flach-Florey Christina Bürgi
Communication Communication

Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA
Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers FINMA
Autorità federale di vigilanza sui mercati finanziari FINMA
Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA

Schwanengasse 2, CH-3003 Berne
Tel. +41 31 327 91 73
Fax +41 31 327 91 01

christina.buergi@finma.ch
questions@finma.ch
FINMA - Willkommen bei der FINMA


We asked a good friend of the FPA to contact Crown Forex's chat support this morning while this article was being prepared. They deny that there are any problems and say there is no liquidation. This is the same company that claimed it had no problems last fall while the FPA had over a dozen complaints against them. We are amazed at Crown's continued efforts to hide the truth.

We urge anyone who has an account with Crown Forex to immediately contact Philippe von Bredow and Laurent Winkelmann immediately. They were the investigators and are now the liquidators of Crown Forex.

We consider Crown Forex's pattern of deception to be unethical. We also find that they violated the FPA's first definition of scam by failing to return money to traders while they still had the power to do so. We consider the fact that they are being liquidated to be evidence of even worse behavior behind the scenes. In our view, Crown Forex is definitely a scam.



Official scam finding against Crown Forex

Original article warning about problems with Crown

Warning about Crown Forex being taken over by Swiss investigators
 
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Goodbye bucketshop

I feel very sorry for their clients(and we all know the little fish will never see a dime) If the Officers of this POS company were made to physically suffer pain and the money they stole was taken from their families bank accounts and assets, maybe people would be less inclined to act subhuman?
 
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The alarm bells went off as soon as I read they didn't charge interest on GBPJPY shorts.
 
And to think the people at Forex Factory got upset at me when I cross posted my article about Crown over there.

Oh wait - Crown was one of their "preferred brokers". :p

Crown also used to advertise at the FPA, but stopped at about the time the investigation started. I guess they only like forums that protect them.
 
Good Ridance Of Them Fraudsters, Fpa investigators! You Are My Persons Of The Year Of All Times! Please Keep It Up With The War Against The Fraudulent Prodigal Bastards; Indeed We Knew Their Days Are Numbered In Their Voyage Of Suicidal Dishonest Missions And Cheating Madness! Thanks For Giving Them A Stupendous Fiasco And Waterloo!
 
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why is their website still active?

why is their website still active? there maybe some people unaware of what's happening to Crownforex, and still send them money and open account with them!
 
Update

Just recieved this email from the liquidators

Dear clients,

reference is made to our previous e-mail about CROWN FOREX SA’s bankruptcy opened by the FINMA on May 19, 2009 at 8:00am (Swiss Time).

As of the opening of the bankruptcy, the FINMA has also ordered the suspension of all activities of CROWN FOREX SA, including the trading.

It however appears that the trading system and the trading platform are still operated abroad in violation of the FINMA’s decision.

That being so, we inform you that from the bankruptcy opening, May 19, 2009 at 8:00am, no transaction shall bind the bankruptcy estate of CROWN FOREX SA.

Finally, from May 29, 2009, the web site CROWN FOREX SA will be updated with all relevant information that can be publicly disclosed on the situation of CROWN FOREX SA.

We also draw your attention on the fact that the FINMA, as supervisory Authority, will post on its web site FINMA - Willkommen bei der FINMA and in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce www.shab.ch important legal information pertaining to the rights and obligations of the creditors and debtors of the estate of CROWN FOREX SA, in bankruptcy.

Sincerely,

Laurent WINKELMANN Philippe von BREDOW

NOTTER MEGEVAND & PARTNERS
Place Edouard-Claparède 3
1205 Genève
SWITZERLAND
p.vonbredow@nomea.ch
l.winkelmann@nomea.ch
 
Let FINMA and their lawyers do their work

Hello everyone:

We knew that FINMA decided to shut down Crownforex since March, but they did not make any announcement because by law they must submit the case to the court and give CF 30 days to respond. Now the court had decided, so the liquidation process started.

In the US, this process move much quicker. When the NFA and CFTC liquidated FXLQ, they shut down FXLQ’s website and let the public know right away what was going on. The trustee or the Receiver took about 6 month to do their work and at the end, every customer got 100% of their fund back.

In this case, we do not know how the Swiss system works. It may take 6 months or longer before we see any fund release. But let the Receiver or Trustees do their work, no need to panic or spread fear that we do not get anything back. We will get our fund back, but at this point we do not know how much asset CF still have and what the Receiver was able to take control.

I believe FINMA should be able to take control a big portion, if not all CF asset. FINMA frozen all CF’s accounts from the beginning of the investigation, so CF cannot move their asset some where else.

I think CF still has a big portion of their asset stuck when FINMA started investigation. They do everything they can to prevent liquidation because they know they are losing most if not all their asset after the trustees distribute the fund back to customers.

I few months a go, CF manager Mr. Swais even made attempt to do debtor transfer. He contacted some large customers offer to pay about 80% of the amount CF owed, if the customer agree to debtor transfer. That mean, someone else, like CF investors or owner will pay this debt, but before that can happen, the customer have to sign release to all claim against CF.

I did not know how many took this bait because it is very tempting, but the problem is, once this happen, we may lose legal claim to our fund at CF, and if liquidation happen, CF can come back with the documents saying that we agreed to release this debt, and thus cannot claim it any more. Therefore, the more customers CF can take off their claim list the better, because at the end there may be some asset left for the owner after all fund paid out to customers.

We will see how all of these will play out. I have good hope that we will receive most if not all the fund. If we don’t collect all the fund that they owed us, we can still sue them in Swiss criminal court for more fund and damages. We will make them feel the pain as they had inflicted pain and suffering on their customers.
 
Great save on me! I just plan to open an acount in CROWN, so this time will not definately. Thank you for this alert.
 
I definitely agree that now everyone should give the liquidators time to do their work. Account holders should give them all the info they need, then try to limit themselves to asking for updates every 2-4 weeks. If hundreds (thousands?) of account holders send multiple "where's my money" emails every week, that will just slow the process down.

Nice to hear that this Shadi Swais guy is still trying to lure in new customers and also tried to screw over older customers. I hope this ends up with him getting to spend some quality time in a Swiss prison.

Great save on me! I just plan to open an acount in CROWN, so this time will not definately. Thank you for this alert.

Always check a broker's reviews to see if there are any significant complaints about problems withdrawing money. I'm not talking about one person whining about a wire transfer not arriving within 5 days, but something a little more substantial. The FPA had a warning up on Crown's review page sometime back in October saying that there were multiple complaints of withdrawal problems.

No matter how good a broker seems to be, it doesn't do you any good to make your fortune in forex if you can never actually withdraw any of the money.
 
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