Leofitz
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FPA members have been posting their problems with receiving account withdrawals from Capital Trade Markets on a couple other threads in this forum. This thread is place where all members who have had fraudulent dealings with New Zealand based brokesr can post their experience. The purpose will be to decide whether the financial oversight by legal agencies of the New Zealand government are rigorous enough to protect Forex traders.
The poor business practices seen by the FX brokers Forex Trends, and more recently Capital Trust Markets, begs the question. The conclusion may be to simply avoid all New Zealand based brokers. This would be until the government sets up a legal framework that discourages FX brokers from preying upon traders who do business there assuming there is rule of law that prevents fraudulent behavior.
In my recent investigation of CTM for the purpose of receiving back my deposited funds, I've communicated with an investigative journalist at Finance Magnates magazine in Aukland. He mentioned that other CTM clients had contacted him with similar stories and that he was investigating the situation. The journalist is part of a financial watchdog group that is concerned that there is inadequate protection of clients who do business with brokers registered in New Zealand. He sited a recent case with a broker "ForexTrends" that has been censured in NZ. He said that their fraudulent methods sounded similar to current reports about CTM. After he's collected enough information he plans to print an expose article that will highlight Mr. Reza Mokhtarian's exploits with CTM in New Zealand.
I'm not a legal expert but it seems to me that NZ is encouraging fraudulent behavior when they allow off-shore brokers to locally register a company, collect clients funds, deposit the funds outside the country, and then de-register their legal association with the primary financial oversight agency in the country and disappear. If a brokerage de-registers their company, all funds held in trust for clients should instantly be frozen, and all records seized.
In retrospect, a warning light for me should have been when CTM asked me to wire account funds to an account in Canada, rather than in New Zealand. I will never again open an account with a broker that holds client funds in another country.
The current situation with CTM and apparent indifference by the NZ agencies responsible to protect clients, is curious. A few months ago I had another NZ-based account closed when the Swiss Natl Bank un-linked the CHF with Euro. My account was with Excel Broker/Global Markets and they lost significant funds such that they closed down the company. I'd have to say that I was very impressed with Excell/Global Markets professionalism. They immediately began an email campaign of updating all clients every other day as to the ramifications of them losing substantial funds. They reassured clients that funds would be returned ASAP, and they were within 10 days.
An article was posted at their closure that seems to suggest that the NZ government was involved.
As of Thursday, 22 Jan 2015 100% of pending withdrawal requests were processed amounting to 93% of the $1.954M in client equity held by Global Brokers NZ Ltd (GBL). As of today, 27 Jan 2015, 96% of client funds have been sent back to clients and the remainder await withdrawal requests. The Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand has worked closely with GBL since the incident to ensure client funds were being safely returned.
The current CTM scenario unfortunately is the opposite. The CTM website has been up and down. No email communication after one initial message. obscure statements on their website about 're-organization and trust us'. Then long silence with all company representatives being inaccessible by phone or email. The icing on the cake was when they de-registered with the FSPR without any apparent response by the FMA or other agencies in the NZ government.!!!
Something stinks here and it may take media expose and a class-action suit to illuminate to the NZ government that their indifference to fraud isn't acceptable. FX traders have a world of choices as to where they take their business.
Please add your anecdotes and opinions related to doing business with an FX broker in New Zealand......
The poor business practices seen by the FX brokers Forex Trends, and more recently Capital Trust Markets, begs the question. The conclusion may be to simply avoid all New Zealand based brokers. This would be until the government sets up a legal framework that discourages FX brokers from preying upon traders who do business there assuming there is rule of law that prevents fraudulent behavior.
In my recent investigation of CTM for the purpose of receiving back my deposited funds, I've communicated with an investigative journalist at Finance Magnates magazine in Aukland. He mentioned that other CTM clients had contacted him with similar stories and that he was investigating the situation. The journalist is part of a financial watchdog group that is concerned that there is inadequate protection of clients who do business with brokers registered in New Zealand. He sited a recent case with a broker "ForexTrends" that has been censured in NZ. He said that their fraudulent methods sounded similar to current reports about CTM. After he's collected enough information he plans to print an expose article that will highlight Mr. Reza Mokhtarian's exploits with CTM in New Zealand.
I'm not a legal expert but it seems to me that NZ is encouraging fraudulent behavior when they allow off-shore brokers to locally register a company, collect clients funds, deposit the funds outside the country, and then de-register their legal association with the primary financial oversight agency in the country and disappear. If a brokerage de-registers their company, all funds held in trust for clients should instantly be frozen, and all records seized.
In retrospect, a warning light for me should have been when CTM asked me to wire account funds to an account in Canada, rather than in New Zealand. I will never again open an account with a broker that holds client funds in another country.
The current situation with CTM and apparent indifference by the NZ agencies responsible to protect clients, is curious. A few months ago I had another NZ-based account closed when the Swiss Natl Bank un-linked the CHF with Euro. My account was with Excel Broker/Global Markets and they lost significant funds such that they closed down the company. I'd have to say that I was very impressed with Excell/Global Markets professionalism. They immediately began an email campaign of updating all clients every other day as to the ramifications of them losing substantial funds. They reassured clients that funds would be returned ASAP, and they were within 10 days.
An article was posted at their closure that seems to suggest that the NZ government was involved.
As of Thursday, 22 Jan 2015 100% of pending withdrawal requests were processed amounting to 93% of the $1.954M in client equity held by Global Brokers NZ Ltd (GBL). As of today, 27 Jan 2015, 96% of client funds have been sent back to clients and the remainder await withdrawal requests. The Financial Markets Authority of New Zealand has worked closely with GBL since the incident to ensure client funds were being safely returned.
The current CTM scenario unfortunately is the opposite. The CTM website has been up and down. No email communication after one initial message. obscure statements on their website about 're-organization and trust us'. Then long silence with all company representatives being inaccessible by phone or email. The icing on the cake was when they de-registered with the FSPR without any apparent response by the FMA or other agencies in the NZ government.!!!
Something stinks here and it may take media expose and a class-action suit to illuminate to the NZ government that their indifference to fraud isn't acceptable. FX traders have a world of choices as to where they take their business.
Please add your anecdotes and opinions related to doing business with an FX broker in New Zealand......