Is Felix on holiday?

[SandyQuaho]

Well it is Felix, the pictures of him and his girlfriend at the woman pictured in the passport shot on the news report are the same person. The exact same necklace is worn and its obvious by the fact that they are one in the same.

Reading the case file a few things that have me worried are:

- Felix lives in a small one bedroom apartment which is rented to him.

My concern is that if he is a trader why does he not have his own residence or why does he not at least live in a house in a nice part of town? The report suggest this whole business is run from a makeshift office on his dinning room table. That does not sound like a successful trader to me. Even I have a office for my trading. It does not add up and that is why I am worried.

I am not trying to defame Felix here, these are genuine concerns.

Also it speaks a lot of his integrity that he is staying in America illegally and he organized a fake green card scam. He is not paying taxes yet he is living in America. To me that just seems unfair.

This is all just a big shock to me, I would have imagined Felix to be a legal citizen earning a nice income. Instead he lives in a small apartment and does not even have an office he runs his business from his dining room.

 

[SandyQuaho]

How can he say that any review that rates him as a 'scam' is fake though. Who decides that? There sure are one or two one star reviews but I find it difficult to believe that nobody has ever rated him a scam.

Is it just that whenever somebody rates him a scam he says the review must be fake and gets rid of it?

The first time I tried the service was around this time last year and at that time if was not good at all. I got a refund in the second month and I posted a scam review because I was convinced it was a scam. Rob would make excuses about being on the beach checking out women when he failed a trade. My review never made it up, after the third time I gave up.

I see your standpoint saying that fake reviews should not be posted but I see many people point out that their reviews never made it. If you read the bad reviews now you will see even they have good things to say. Most of them say he is bad for 1-2-3-4 reasons but on the other hand he is good too.

I do not think he is scamming people but I have always questioned his integrity. I know that extremely negative reviews never see the light of day.

 

[Pharaoh]

I am not trying to defame Felix here, these are genuine concerns.

And I'm not trying to say that Felix is perfect. There definitely are some items that he should address.

Also it speaks a lot of his integrity that he is staying in America illegally and he organized a fake green card scam. He is not paying taxes yet he is living in America. To me that just seems unfair.

This is all just a big shock to me, I would have imagined Felix to be a legal citizen earning a nice income. Instead he lives in a small apartment and does not even have an office he runs his business from his dining room.

I suspect that what might be called a small apartment here might be considered pretty nice compared to what Felix had back where he came from. I'll wager if we could investigate, we'd find a lot of Forex companies (good and bad) being run from home offices.

Our immigration laws have been a bit ... extreme since 2001. I've known of one perfectly law-abiding UK student here who was deported just because his college gave the immigration people the wrong info about his enrollment status. Thus, I'll be more than happy to hold back on any judgment in that area until a lot more facts are on the table.

Being involved in setting up a green card marriage to keep someone you love in the country may not be legal, but it is something that I can understand. (OK, I admit it. Underneath my gruff exterior I'm a romantic at heart.)

 

[HornedGod]

If this does turn out to be Felix then the absolute best comedic moment has to be learning that Dimitri is an "Internet-ordained minister" and performed the sham wedding himself.

Genius.

 

[HornedGod]

Even positive posts (of non-Felix related producst) don't seem to see the light of day.

I've posted reviews (or at least tried to) of forex books and educational services that I've tried over the years. They were in-depth, giving pros and cons of the product in question.

None of them were posted up.

The Amazon.com review service this is not.

If Felix was truely serious about the review section being helpful to people then he would run it in a more professional manner.

I can easily understand why people consider the reviews nothing more than a honey pot to draw people into trying out his own forex related services.

 

[Crazy Cat]

Just little comment

Well, I am not Felix and I am not the best person to comment his case. I will limit myself to what is publicly available, yet misunderstood.

First of all, it is not true that Felix is illegally in the USA. Just because one of the papers wrote so it does not mean it is true. Besides, he was not arrested according to my knowledge either.

Regarding taxes, everyone who is 6 months or more in the USA, is required and obligated to file taxes to IRS. Regardless if your status is legal or illegal, your tax must be paid, and if not, you will be prosecuted by IRS. You can go to IRS website or call them, if you don't believe. Illegals do pay taxes. Read this article: Illegal immigrants paying taxes as example of good citizenship | The San Diego Union-Tribune

Besides, Felix is running official, legal business so how do you expect him to skip taxes? According to IRS, all corporations must file tax reports quarterly, even if income was 0. If such reports are not filed, your business will be closed by them. Take my word on this, Felix every year is paying more taxes than many people here. Not to mention all charities he sponsor.

Just because Felix is renting an apartment it does not mean he does not have money. In todays economic and real estate situation buying something, especially in California, is highly risky. Unless you are extremely stupid, you don't want to buy a house for $800,000 to learn that a few years later it may have value of $500,000. Even if the value would go down by "only" 5%, that would be $40,000 - way more than rent price. In such economic situation, renting seems to be the best option. Buy on dips, not highs! Also, even if the value would not change, you are still a loser. If you had that money in Euro in past 5 years, you would double that amount. I am not talking about trading Forex, just keeping cash in Euro, without leverage...... Just an example. Gold went up well too.

Also, he is not living there anymore but I am not the best person to talk about this. Only what I can say is that currently he lives in a nice place where not everyone could afford to live. Unless you don't consider Marina Del Rey as a nice place to live, then sorry...

Next, if you read articles very well, this is not Felix but his girlfriend looking for a green card. Felix was never been married. This non-sense happened mostly because Immigration is a very slow institution. After waiting MANY years for her asylum, she just got a little bit impatient. Good question here is why people have to wait so many years for their case, but this question needs to be ask to Immigration and U.S. Congress, unfortunately. Please note that marrying U.S. citizen gives only right to... send a petition for the green card, and this procedure is just much master although it takes a few months to complete too. After your petition is sent, they will check your criminal background and all that, as well as take your fingerprints. It is not like your marry someone, and next day you are picking up your green card waiting for you.

Last but not least, there is a few people working here in this business: me, Forexbastards people, Tim Swanson (Sir Pipsalot) who is running Diamonds, Rob Allen and his team from Secret News Weapon, Rob Grespi from Kingforex, and a few more people. Even if it was true that Felix is facing deportation (I don't know anything about it), everything will still work fine. Besides, in on-line business you can do business from anyplace you have internet connection - if not from California, then from Moscow, London or Paris.

To finish this email, I would like to point one more thing. His girlfriend had clean criminal background, and her only "crime" she committed was that she was born in a wrong place at wrong time...... Well, it seems that true and model American is an American you can watch at Jerry Springer show. At least they are legally here in the USA, contribute a lot to our society and they do pay taxes for sure.

--Crazy Cat

 

[SandyQuaho]

I never said it was Felix that needed the card but he knew about it.

If you read the report from the state attorneys office you will see that Felix is an illegal immigrant. He confirms in a interview that he is in the country illegally.

Forget 'buying' and say 'renting' why would a successful trader rent a tiny apartment in which he has to set-up his office one a dinning room table? Should he not be able to rent a much larger apartment?

If Felix was a citizen why did he not just marry his girlfriend instead of helping her organize an elaborate scam aimed at defrauding the government?

This is sounding worse and worse by the minute.

 

[Pharaoh]

I can't speak to how reviews were handled farther in the past, but reviews I've posted (good/bad/neutral - all for non-Felix/Rob products) all were posted in the last few months.

There are a LOT of services with 5 star reviews, and Felix and Rob's are only a small part of these. I also note that babypips (a free service not affiliated with Felix) has the highest rating of any service (sort them by rating to see). If the reviews were too badly rigged, I don't think this would happen.

Determining what makes a review fake can be difficult. Looking for multiple 5 star (or scam) reviews in a short period of time that use very similar wording or that come from the same block of iP addresses would be some of the more obvious methods. I do not envy the review moderators, because no matter how careful they are, some mistakes will be made.

On suggestion I've made to the forum admin (and I'm told it's under consideration) would be a special review area within the forum (similar to the new one we now have - see Forex Services Discussions - Forex Peace Army Forum), but that posting of reviews would be limited to forum members who've been with us for awhile, and that all reviews would pass through a "review committee". If a review is rejected, the poster could either revise it, or place in the unmoderated review area we now have.

This would create a "high value" set of reviews by people that we know (and mostly trust ) as our fellow FPA soldiers.

 

[Pharaoh]

If you read the report from the state attorneys office you will see that Felix is an illegal immigrant. He confirms in a interview that he is in the country illegally.

If Felix was a citizen why did he not just marry his girlfriend instead of helping her organize an elaborate scam aimed at defrauding the government?

I would guess that Felix is not a citizen, but that it is possible that his visa may have lapsed. That sort of thing happens all the time (I came within 3 days of being in a foreign country illegally due to a delay in a visa update, so I know).

Assuming that he's not a citizen, then marrying his girlfriend wouldn't grant her legal status even if all of his paperwork is in order.

Green card marriages are actually fairly common. The only thing "elaborate" about this one is that it seems to involve an advertisement on Craig's List. Normally, these things are arranged a bit more quietly. Typically, the only "fraud" is really just an attempt to do an end run around the lengthy and circuitous "normal" immigration process.

Forget 'buying' and say 'renting' why would a successful trader rent a tiny apartment in which he has to set-up his office one a dinning room table? Should he not be able to rent a much larger apartment?

Isn't Felix Russian? I've heard some very interesting things about Russian apartments from both Russians and friends who have been there. A modest 1 bedroom apartment in the states would seem pretty large and nice. I had what I thought was a small Chinese apartment - until I saw where many of my friends there were living, then my place seemed palatial in comparison.

 

[Upright Pip]

Please show your support

I personally feel a lot of compassion to Felix and his girlfriend, if all this discussion regarding their immigration status is a real story. It is my seventh year in United States and despite every legal effort, my presence in this country still depends on visa renewals… Very sad, I feel my knowledge (PhD) and experience (Professor of Math) may have served this great country the better way. :unhappy:

Also, I can’t help but notice the hatred coming from Mr. PipWizard

check this out "!!!! pipwizard.com/forexbastards.htm !!!!"

formerly known I believe as Mr. CentralPips, whos scam service went under not without Felix’s help (I apologize if I am mistaking, I do not have any proof).

Helping us to avoid the scam, Felix does make the enemies! This thread shows a lot o concerns, questions (which I share), but unfortunately very little support. :err: Felix, please know, that we appreciate what you do for us- traders and I hope to see more supportive posts from Forex Peace Army soldiers here!