We have opened accounts and invested money with a Forex broker called "Integrity Ltd" aka “IntegrityFX” or “IFX”. They're registered with an authority called “Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority” based in the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and offers Forex Broking services, like any other FX broker. Only after what has transpired we have discovered that the “Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority” is a fully fledged business and industrial arena offering competitive free zone and non-free zone facilities. RAKIA offers industrial and business investors the benefit of smooth set up of their operations in a dynamic and synergistic environment (according to their website). So RAKIA has nothing to do with investing in the financial markets per say and also has nothing to do with regulation of FX brokers, but is rather a free-trade-zone arena in the UAE. “IntegrityFX” is a registered company in the UAE as far as we understood and was registered at RAKIA (according to the IntegrityFX website), however after contacting RAKIA they couldn’t confirm that “IntegrityFX” is registered with them. This was their response “Please be informed that RAKIA is not the competent authority to solve the disputes between its licensees and third parties. The same needs to be solved through the competent authorities (Police/Courts/Public Prosecution). It is recommended that you seek advice from an external legal advisor. Please do not consider this email as a confirmation that the subject company is licensed by RAKIA.”
Here our experience goes. We have signed an Introducer Agreement with IntegrityFX during 2015 (27 May 2015) and we have 2 clients that opened and deposited their money with IntegrityFX. We're Forex traders and offer a “Copy Trader” service to our clients free of charge, the two accounts were linked to our Copy Trader service and they both started trading in June 2015. It all went well for the first few months, however during September 2015 (the fourth month of trading) we started experiencing problems with their servers/bridges to their servers on the MT4 platform and from thereon we couldn't exit, place or amend any trades placed in the FX market, the accounts were as if they were stuck in space. We immediately informed them about the problem (Mr. Timothy DuBose via Skype on the 24/09/2015 and then via email on the 28/09/2015 to both Timothy DuBose and the IFX account manager Mr. Josh Habben), they were very slow to respond to our requests and in the meantime we couldn't do anything with the client accounts, they were basically dormant. First response we got was on the 30/10/2015 stating the following:
“Our MT4 bridge and (ISP) Internet Service Provider was compromised and hacked for at least 4-5 weeks by what they believe to originate from a Chinese entity. Adding to our incident I have to mention that several other well known forex brokers, liquidity providers and bridge providers have and are experiencing similar problems. With all of this taking place our merging partners have backed out and decided not to move forward at this time, this has become a very difficult period of time to have to deal with. I have listed information below that we have been receiving from our technology providers which describes the incidents we are currently dealing with”.
It was obvious and evident that this couldn’t be the case and that IntegrityFX was hiding something.
We also noticed that IntegrityFX website (
http://www.integrityfx.com) was down on the 26/10/2015 when we visited it, so red flags came up immediately from hereon.
The clients started to lose money being stuck in positions and there was no way for us to do anything about it, our hands were cut off, the accounts were there but not reacting to anything. In the meantime our clients decided to withdraw their money to avoid further losses. After a while we had no connection to the server/bridge at all and we can't see balances or get access to anything, the accounts showed “$0” balance.
We’ve contacted them numerous times and the only other response we got was on the 13/12/2015 stating the following:
“Dear IFX client,
The following information is an update of the past, present, and future activities that have taken place and will take place for this company. Since June 2015 the IFX website, trading bridge, ISP-internet service provider, and LP-liquidity provider have gone through an extensive series of hacking attacks from a Chinese entity located in Beijing China. The hacks that took place were intentionally done to steal data information from the company structure. The entry point or where the hacking started was with the bridge company’s ISP-internet service provider. After the ISP and bridge company upgraded the network security with new hardware and software the and hacking attempts still continue to this day. During this time IFX was in the process of transitioning the IFX Corporation to a new forex solution provider, but that business deal has been terminated. All trading positions are being hedged in order to protect client accounts until trading can resume as normal. IFX has had to layoff some of their staff in order to meet and sustain technology operations. We also have started the process of rebuilding its technology operating systems and network security structure. Basically we have to rebuild all over again because of the viruses that were implemented during the hacking from the Chinese. The website is in the process of a rebuild and the MT4 mobile is not operating at this time. IFX is still in the process of looking to sell a majority share of the corporation while it maintains and manages the trading, technology, and support operations for the new owner of IFX whoever that may be. We have two very interested parties in Johannesburg and the other in Durban South Africa, we feel that the new majority share holder should come from the region. We are still open to entertain other offers coming from business leaders in Africa, and we will keep you informed with the progress that is made.
Please send all questions to
support@integrityfx.com….
IFX Accounts
support@integrityfx.com
www.integrityfx.com”
It was now clear that we’re sitting with a huge problem regarding IFX and the owner/president Mr. Timothy DuBose. From the last communication on the 13/12/2015 we had no further correspondence from IFX or Mr. Timothy DuBose even though we sent various emails and Skype messages.
We accumulated many screenshots and correspondence records we had with them up to now, however we heard nothing, get no communication or answers from them anymore. We're now in a position where we're very scared that the money deposited with them is now at risk and they’ve defrauded us. No information, no communication and no correspondence from their side, they Bank with “Emirates NBD”, however we believe that the President of the company resides in the United States of America (in Los Angeles, California). It seems very likely that IntegrityFX and Mr. Timothy DuBose have used the clients’ money for personal expenses and overheads (this same issue on IntegrityFX has been discussed in another thread on forexpeacearmy threat, here’s the link
https://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public/review/www.integrityfx.com ), in other words fraud and theft.
It’s industry law and standard that client money at a broker should be kept in segregated accounts. In the unlikely event of a Brokers’ bankruptcy, no clients' funds should be affected as they would not be part of the insolvency estate. All client funds, without any exceptions, should be fully segregated into a special client account and kept separate from the Brokers’ company funds. Segregation ensures that client funds will not be used to pay back creditors in the unlikely event of a Brokers’ default or insolvency.
We also know of another individual that invested $40,000 with IntegrityFX and is experiencing the exact same problem. In actual fact, this individual was a client introduced by us to IntegrityFX. This client was supposed to be allocated under our IB partnership agreement with IntegrityFX, however in the beginning it was, but the client informed us that they have closed their account at IntegrityFX. We however discovered that another account was opened by the client at IntegrityFX (via Timothy DuBose) which doesn’t fall under our IB partnership agreement and the money was transferred into the new account without our knowledge. Needless to say, we have never received IB commissions on this account from thereon. The client never informed us about the situation, neither Mr. Timothy DuBose, however when the client requested a withdrawal on his money at IntegrityFX, they never received it, up until now. The client contacted us and enquired whether we’re experiencing the same problem at IntegrityFX, we confirmed that we do. This client’s money is also lost…
Furthermore have we only received IB commissions once, it was also a complete mission to get this from IntegrityFX. We requested an IB commission report and the IB commissions to be paid over to us on the 01/07/2015, we were then copied into an email on the 22/07/2015 from Josh Habben (Accounts manager) stating the following:
“Tim,
Q (
referring to us) was not setup in the MT4 manager correctly and their commissions were not tallying up so I’m having to do it per trade calculation gggrrrrr. Should have it done before I leave today.”
On the 27/07/2015 Josh Habben (Accounts manager) wrote:
“Tim, Q (
referring to us) the wire was processed, will forward confirmation once received. I’ve also added them to the IB system so once it goes live we should have a speedier delivery time.”
On the 28/09/2015 we requested and raised issues again on the IB commissions and all the other issues as discussed above, however we never received answers from them. These issues have been raised with them on a regular basis, no response.
We only received IB commissions this one time on the 27/07/2015 and never again..
Information on the company and its president is as follows:
Bank: Emirates NBD - GROUP HEAD OFFICE BRANCH
Address: Baniyas Road, Opposite Dubai Creek Tower, Deira, Dubai UAE
Beneficiary: Integrity Ltd.
Account Number: 0514866759301
IBAN: AE270260000514866759301
Swift Code: EBILAEAD
Western Union Money Transfer:
Timothy DuBose
951-807-6114
Riverside, California 92508 USA
timdubose@gmail.com
Western Union® Number. 108 098 514
Integrity Ltd. P.O. BOX 31291, Ras Al Khaimah, Dubai United Arab Emirates
Contact number: +1.844.495.4160
Email addresses:
accounts@integrityfx.com
Timothy DuBose <tdubose@integrityfx.com> (President)
Josh Habben
jhabben@integrityfx.com (Accounts)
Support
support@integrityfx.com
IntegrityFX
President & Founder
Tim DuBose
tdubose@integrityfx.com
http://www.integrityfx.com
skype: timdubose (we see him as still being online, however never responds or answer)
info@integrityfx.com
Server IP address for Live Accounts: 38.76.4.122:443
As you can see above, exact same situation as you described.
We had around $15,000 + invested with them.
Get no communication from Timothy or the rest.
I understand that Timothy himself lives in Riverside, California (USA)
This is blatant fraud and probably used the deposits of clients as operational money and personal use.
We’ll take this matter as far as we can until arrests have been made.
Any other people that have been defrauded feel free to make contact with us so we can have an even stronger case against this scamster!
