Contacted the accounts department myself by phone, and I can confirm what some others have been saying i.e. all withdrawals are currently suspended while the banking commission audit is in progress. FWIW, they assured me my funds would be safe, and I'd be able to withdrawal them in a few weeks once the commission had completed their "audit". I know of course that depends on the outcome of the audit. They refused to say the exact reason for the audit, and suggested it was more of a routine thing. i doubt that of course. Most likely someone has raised a serious complaint against them, that the commission are taking seriously. We'll know shortly whether there was a basis to the accusations. My gut feeling is the Commissions audit won't be favorable, given their track record and the numerous complaints against Crown we've seen on the web already.
From what i've read, it seems many of the complaints concern large swap-free accounts, that Crown have realized have been costing them and have tried to add retrospective fees to. They should never have offered such accounts in the first place, especially in the current environment of collapsing yen pairs. Does that mean a trader could say short 10 mill AUD/JPY at Crown without any swap and hold a long AUD/JPY at another broker thereby fully hedging their position and gaining a healthy swap while they hold the hedge?. I could see how such a strategy would be very attractive to traders with large accounts, as you couldn't lose. But of course a short AUD/JPY position would be costing Crown swap, and that cost has probably increased considerably in the current economic environment.
