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UPDATE: GCI and Capital Trader have reached a mutually satisfactory agreement. The FPA considers this issue to be fully resolved.
Dumped by her broker after 5 years
On June 3rd 2009, FPA member Capital Trader complained to the FPA about her IB contract with GCITrading (aka GCI Financial) being canceled with no warning. Between the cancellation of trades and the removal of 2 months of IB commissions, this cost Capital Trader over $10,000.
To make this case stranger, it was GCI that approached her about becoming an IB shortly after she first started trading there about 5 years ago. When FPA Investigator Gerard tried to help negotiate with GCI, He got a single response claiming that Capital Trader was trading “off-market” and that most of the commissions were from her account. The ibpayments office said that she was...
When Capital Trader pointed out that it was GCI who requested that she become an IB and that her trading style had not changed in 5 years, there was no response. Then Gerard asked about why a customer of 5 years standing couldn't get an answer to these questions, GCI's IB Payments office changed from being willing to talk to the FPA to saying...
Gerard explained that Capital Trader had clearly invited him to assist in trying to deal with this issue in a simple and informal way. Capital Trader also made it plain that the FPA had been invited in to the discussion. He asked if there was another email address better suited to this conversation and was told...
Since GCI made it plain that they were unwilling to communicate - once hard questions were asked, Gerard continued to make suggestions to Capital Trader. She continued to CC Gerard on all messages she sent to the company and never got another reply from them.
We consider breaking such a long-standing business relationship to be highly suspect. We find the sudden change from freely providing information to the FPA to threatening the FPA to be highly suspect. Refusing to provide any real answers to a long-standing customer is at minimum unethical. Since GCI would not provide any more information either to the FPA or to Capital Trader, we have no choice but to take her version of events as the complete truth. Failure to pay money owed to a trader is the FPA's first definition of scam.
The FPA Scam Investigations Committee declares that GCITrading is hereby blacklisted by the Forex Peace Army. We urge traders not to do business with this company. For those who already have accounts there, we recommend that you close them.
We wish thank FPA Investigator Gerard for his efforts on this case. We extend our regrets to FPA member Capital Trader for her loss of funds. We are pleased to hear that she has contacted the regulators in Belize. We look forward to finding out if they really regulate or just hand out licenses for a fee.
FPA Scam Finding
Capital Trader's original complaint
FPA Review Page for GCI Financial Ltd.
.
Dumped by her broker after 5 years
On June 3rd 2009, FPA member Capital Trader complained to the FPA about her IB contract with GCITrading (aka GCI Financial) being canceled with no warning. Between the cancellation of trades and the removal of 2 months of IB commissions, this cost Capital Trader over $10,000.
To make this case stranger, it was GCI that approached her about becoming an IB shortly after she first started trading there about 5 years ago. When FPA Investigator Gerard tried to help negotiate with GCI, He got a single response claiming that Capital Trader was trading “off-market” and that most of the commissions were from her account. The ibpayments office said that she was...
...never in the business of introducing or referring business to GCI, but rather that the agreement was abused to try to earn rebates on off-market trades in the IB's account, and that the only purpose of placing the "trades" was to accrue IB fees, not to actually take positions in the market.
When Capital Trader pointed out that it was GCI who requested that she become an IB and that her trading style had not changed in 5 years, there was no response. Then Gerard asked about why a customer of 5 years standing couldn't get an answer to these questions, GCI's IB Payments office changed from being willing to talk to the FPA to saying...
If there is some standing you have in this matter, please let us know what it is. The ibpayments@gcitrading.com email address is for the use of our introducing brokers and clients. If you do not have a signed Power of Attorney from one of our customers, then we will have to ask you to cease and desist.
Gerard explained that Capital Trader had clearly invited him to assist in trying to deal with this issue in a simple and informal way. Capital Trader also made it plain that the FPA had been invited in to the discussion. He asked if there was another email address better suited to this conversation and was told...
...there is no email address on which you can continue to contact us. Our next step is to report your harassment to your web host's abuse department.
Since GCI made it plain that they were unwilling to communicate - once hard questions were asked, Gerard continued to make suggestions to Capital Trader. She continued to CC Gerard on all messages she sent to the company and never got another reply from them.
We consider breaking such a long-standing business relationship to be highly suspect. We find the sudden change from freely providing information to the FPA to threatening the FPA to be highly suspect. Refusing to provide any real answers to a long-standing customer is at minimum unethical. Since GCI would not provide any more information either to the FPA or to Capital Trader, we have no choice but to take her version of events as the complete truth. Failure to pay money owed to a trader is the FPA's first definition of scam.
The FPA Scam Investigations Committee declares that GCITrading is hereby blacklisted by the Forex Peace Army. We urge traders not to do business with this company. For those who already have accounts there, we recommend that you close them.
We wish thank FPA Investigator Gerard for his efforts on this case. We extend our regrets to FPA member Capital Trader for her loss of funds. We are pleased to hear that she has contacted the regulators in Belize. We look forward to finding out if they really regulate or just hand out licenses for a fee.
FPA Scam Finding
Capital Trader's original complaint
FPA Review Page for GCI Financial Ltd.
.
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