Crown Forex loses control

[Black Knight]

Great points, Joa - we have advised all of our users to submit withdrawal requests as well. Even if accounts are frozen until at least Jan. 30th, what will matter if it comes down to a battle is the paper trail you have of your claims. I like faxes (with time-stamped confirmations printed on the back) much better than e-mails in this regard. And follow-up with with a letter sent by trackable courier, such as FedEx or DHL.

We have retained an attorney in Switzerland, as it seems the Swiss authorities are only willing to speak to attorneys, and will follow up with Mr. Winkelmann (who heading up the investigation) following his estimated date of January 30th for having more information for us.

In the meantime, we have obtained some articles from the Swiss press regarding the Crown investigation, along with a translation:

http://fx-knight.com/smForum/index.php?topic=395.msg2073#msg2073

 

[Black Knight]

Swiss Authority Sets Timeline for Crown Investigation

For those of you unable to withdraw funds from Crown, we just received an update from the Swiss authorities... they expect the investigation to be concluded by the end of February, and to have some additional information for us in March.

You will find their letter to me, along with their contact details, at:
http://fx-knight.com/smForum/index.php?topic=395.msg2270#msg2270

 

[Glenn Strange]

Crownforex

Dear :unhappy:



Crown Forex S.A. was not in receipt of an authorization as bank, securities dealer or authorized in the area of collective investment schemes. Under the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), financial intermediaries in the non-banking sector either require a license from FINMA as subordinated financial intermediaries (DSFIs) in the area money-laundering prevention or need to affiliate to a self-regulatory organization. Financial intermediaries in the non-banking sector are persons who on a professional basis accept or hold on deposit assets belonging to others or who assist in the investment or transfer of such assets. Crown Forex S.A. is a member of the SRO ARIF.

If there are grounds for suspicion that a financial company is carrying out an activity that is not in line with the authorization requirements, FINMA will conduct investigations to establish the facts and, if necessary, take measures to protect investors' interests. FINMA was in fact conducting an investigation to screen the activities of Crown Forex SA. On December 9, 2008 - at this time the predecessor of FINMA, the Swiss Federal Banking Commission (SFBC) - appointed a mandated investigator - Laurent Winkelmann, Chêne-Bougeries and Philippe von Bredow, Céligny as its agents to conduct these proceedings. Crown Forex SA commercial activity had to be suspended, its management was/is not allowed to speak or act for the company. This right was/is reserved to the investigators. Under these circumstances it was not possible to withdraw money from Crown Forex SA accounts. The above information has also been published in the Swiss trade register.

The investigation concerning Crown Forex S.A. is now completed and FINMA has made a decision, but this decision is not yet effective. The Swiss law requires a period of 30 days for any decision to become effective. As long as the decision is not effective, the responsibility for Crown Forex S.A. is still in the hands of the investigators. No further comments can be made until the decision is effective which will be end of March 2009.



Thank you for your understanding.



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

 

[ernest8fingers]

the last place on Earth

Switzerland will now be the 2nd to last place on Earth I would send any of my hard earned money(Swiss based Brokers I mean-I love the country). Russia, (or any Russian based or operated Broker)being the Last Place On Earth anyway, will get nothing forever!

 

[travpip]

The investigation concerning Crown Forex S.A. is now completed and FINMA has made a decision, but this decision is not yet effective. The Swiss law requires a period of 30 days for any decision to become effective. As long as the decision is not effective, the responsibility for Crown Forex S.A. is still in the hands of the investigators. No further comments can be made until the decision is effective which will be end of March 2009.

I know the month is just up and now its April, any word if or when we can make a withdrawal?
cheers

 

[Black Knight]

Crown Forex - Update from FINMA

We've just posted an update regarding Crown at:
Broker Alert: Crown Forex

ernest8... why not go with Dukascopy, they're both! (Russians pretending to be Swiss.) Rumor has it both they and MIG are moving operations to Cyprus now, as Switzerland continues to tighten regulations and raise capitalization requirements (currently 10M CHF).

FINMA recommends Credit Suisse and GFX (forex.ch) as two brokers who are well within compliance of the new regulations, and have a solid track record, though in both cases their (proprietary) platforms leave much to be desired.

 

[Trend Fighter]

Dukascopy had the same dead line " Marsh 31 " to apply for a bank license according to their own website , I don't understand how a regularity matter and a legal case can follow the same order or why these brokers are Appling for banking licenses to fix there regularity situation, and by the way GFX had been under a similar investigation and withdrawals were blocked for a while before they became the FINMA favorite..........................screw them all.....brokers and regulators all together. oh:

 

[Black Knight]

Couldn't agree with you more, Trend Fighter. Who regulates the regulators? And if they are able to freeze accounts and pay themselves with our money, in my mind that presents a bit of a conflict of interest.

The reason everyone's applying for a banking license (or moving to a different jurisdiction) is because the new Swiss regulations require it for brokers + a capitalization of at least 10M CHF. I have no direct experience with GFX so cannot really comment (I don't like proprietary platforms which marry you to the broker), but according to FINMA they've supposedly taken great strides to clean up their act.

We're currently working on a deal with Deutsche Bank for our own clients... we've grown tired of the entire "FCM" market maker scene. Why not bypass the middle man entirely. DB is by far the largest liquidity provider, accounting for just over 22% of all worldwide foreign currency transactions.

 

[Scam Investigations Committee]

Crown Forex is being liquidated. The details are here...

https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/forex-forum/scam-alerts-folder/4779-big-swiss-bankrupt.html

 

[Black Knight]

Update on Crown

Hi folks,

I have some news on the Crown Forex fiasco, and regrettably it's not good. This information is not yet verified, but at least one major newspaper is saying Crown has "no assets". Since our accounts were never segregated by the broker as they claimed, they are legally deemed "Crown assets", meaning there may well be nothing left to be returned to us.

2 charged with running $190M Ponzi scheme | StarTribune.com

Francesc’s Weblog » Major Investor of Crown Forex S.A a U.S. Scammer and its CEO a liar… What’s next?

As sad as this news is, I at least have some small comfort in understanding (finally!) what went suddenly so wrong with a company that had been so good to our clients and so reliable for so long. It seems that in December of 2008 two men by the names of Trevor Cook and Patrick Kiley bought a 51% stake in Crown. These men, it turns out, were running a $190 million Ponzi scheme since 2006, and needed a broker to clear their transactions through so it would look to their clients like they were actually trading their money (instead of spending it on 7 luxury cars, a hotel and a casino in Panama, a historical mansion in Minneapolis, several financial firms in Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands, and even a submarine). FINMA's investigation was hampered it seems (though I still completely disapprove of how they kept us all in the dark for the past 13 months), by the fact that Cook and Kiley had claimed that Crown was prohibiting withdrawals and that's why they couldn't pay back clients, when in fact it was the other way around!

So... what will become of our funds (IF anything is left)? The liquidators appointed by FINMA keep saying that any info will be posted at CROWN FOREX SA when it becomes available.

Wish I had better news for you,

-=Andrei