RESOLVED - YouTradeFX You Trade FX SCAM Alert

amheinrichs

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We opened an account with YouTradeFX in November 2012 with $510,000. Ari Staro was our account manager. We have NEVER traded with them as they were unable to manage our options trade that we were seeking to do, so in January 2013 we requested to have our funds returned to us.

The first thing that happened is that they cancelled the withdrawal request. When I called I was told by Junior Padrao that I had cancelled it myself. When I complained it was revealed that Ari Staro had cancelled it. I sent in a second request for the withdrawal of our funds with a note saying that under no circumstance could this withdrawal be cancelled by Ari Staro. I was contacted by Junior who confirmed that the withdrawal was in process and that it would take 2 days. Then it was early next week. Then we were told there was a banking error by Dave Morris. Then we received an offer to pay us $50,000 every two weeks until we were paid out. (So let me get this straight - you want to take 21 weeks to refund my funds that I have never even traded????) I told them that I intended to report them to the FSA, the FSC the ASIC, the HSBC and the Police.

At this point I get the mysterious phone call from "the owner". Who promises me that despite their banking problems, he is going to make sure that I get my money back, even though he will have to pay me out of his own pocket. He also tells me, that if I report his company to any of the authorities that I will never see my money again, but I have to trust him and he will get me my funds. The next day I received $50,000 from a You Trade (International You Trade Investments MA Ltd.) account in Georgia!

In the meantime, the password to my account was changed and out of nowhere 2 trades magically appeared in my account. Now I actually really don't care about them in the overall scheme of things as the amount totals less than $1000 loss, but I feel it is important to note. When I inquire about these magical trades I was told that we placed them, and that they came from our IP?!?!?!? How very interesting considering that we never had a working platform! I then asked, considering that I didn't open them, but you say I did - who the hell closed them?

Moving on, I kept receiving phone calls from "the owner" - did I mention he refused to give me his name, but kept insisting that I needed to understand how business is done and I should trust him - each time promising me that I would receive my money and that he would send me funds. Over the next couple of weeks I was sent another $40,000 and $50,000. He got VERY upset when he was called by the HSBC about the fax they had received from me regarding the breach of trust with their client and again, told me that if I did not send another fax to the HSBC saying that everything was looked after, I would never receive my money. I did send a fax (which I later followed up with telling them what had happened) and I have not seen a payment since.

After I sent the fax he called me and organized with me that he would pay out the remainder of the $370,000 he owed me over 7 payments over 7 weeks. The first payment was to arrive on Mar 1. In my online account there is a withdrawal of $52753.00 on March 1. Those funds were never sent to me. I got a call from Dave Morris two business days later who let me know that there was a problem with their Credit Suisse account and that it was being resolved. He confirmed that there was to be another payment that friday as well.

This was basically the last I ever heard from them. I have emailed Micheal, who responded to my email asking how he could help and when I emailed him back asking about my money he went completely quiet. We receive no communication at all from them. They will not take our calls or respond to emails.

So where we are today is that YouTradeFX owes us $370,000 and they will not speak to us. At no time have they denied owing us the funds but they will not communicate with us at all nor are they returning our funds. In our minds this whole organization is set up specifically for fraudulent activity and we are victims of a very nasty crime. Every one of them deserves to be in jail - the "owner" - who at one point said his name was "Scott", but I suspect that is an anglicized version of an Isreali name based on all the ownership information I can find for the various YouTradeFX companies, Dave Morris, Junior Padrao, Ari Staro, Olga Douglas, Michael Mimouni - the whole lot of them. I would love to discover that I am simply an administrative error that can magically resolve itself, but right now it sure doesn't look that way!!!
 
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So they can't pay back $500k at once.

It sounds like YouTradeFx may be having serious financial issues. Any chance you have a recording of any of those phone calls?
 
Update on my problems with YouTradeFX

I don't know whether people are aware but the UK regulatory authority - FSA - has been dissolved because they were proven to be completely ineffective. The new regulatory authority the Financial Conduct Authority - is supposed to have some more teeth. This all happened at the end of March. I am now working with the FCA to have a much closer look at the scam YouTradeFX appear to have going.

What it seems YouTradeFX is trying to do is hide behind the multiple companies they have. In the UK there is You Trade Capital Markets (located on New Broad Street) and You Trade Holdings (located on George Lane). On their websites they speak about each other and link through to each other as one global company. As we know from Michael's input on ForexPeaceArmy, they talk about themselves as being all one. I quote Michael's posting of 03-27-2012 "YouTradeFX is a regulated broker with 140 employees in 5 branches. The 5th branch was purchased months ago and it is an ASIC (Austrailia) regulated company called You Trade Capital Markets. We are currently in process of being regulated by the FSA and already abide to their guidelines."

I was assured by Ari Staro in an email that our funds would be safe because they are regulated by the FSA. However, our funds were deposited with You Trade Holdings (youtradefx.com NOT ytfx.co.uk) so when you put in the complaint about them they run into their individual corners and hide behind the separate corporations. This has allowed them, under the FSA, to hide behind their regulated company You Trade Capital Markets. I would place a bet that that portion of the company is as squeaky clean as possible with no t uncrossed or i undotted.

The FSA, even though they have received numerous complaints about YouTradeFX, haven't touched them, because the regulated company, You Trade Capital Markets, says "we don't know anything about this person" and that's that. The problem with the FSA was that, if you were not a regulated company, they could not touch you. This seems pretty silly as a regulatory authority - don't you think? Of course the crooks aren't going to register! On the other hand, it would seem the newly formed FCA doesn't look quite so kindly on companies using the system to fleece their clients. The FCA does not seem to care if you are regulated or not, you still are governed by the rules of financial fair play.

I have walked them though the relationships between the companies and showed them the shell games that YouTrade seems to be playing and they seem to be taking a very keen interest in the relationships between the organizations.

In addition I have reported the group of companies to Action Fraud in the UK. Scotland Yard has set up a new Cyber Crimes division as of April 1 that has specifically been put into place to deal with crimes of this nature. The website to report to is Report fraud and internet crime | Action Fraud. The more complaints they receive about YouTradeFX the more they will take this seriously. I would encourage ANYONE who has been fleeced by this organization to come forward and inundate Scotland Yard with complaints of their misdoings. You do not need to be located in the UK to report them. They are the ones on UK soil, so it does not matter where in the world you are, they can take action. Nor does it matter how long ago the transaction occurred.

I have a very good friend working in the House of Lords,UK who is helping me move this forward. Her specialization is Cyber Crime and has relationships with the appropriate bodies all over Europe. She's pretty ticked off that this company is being allowed to get away with this criminal activity on UK soil, and frankly, is even more mad that I am out $370,000. She does a lot of work with eCrime Wales and Europol as well.

I do read that people HAVE had their issues resolved once they got really pushy with YouTradeFX. I would LOVE to be one of those people who can turn around on here and say YES, the company came through at last and withdraw my complaints. But if that is not meant to be, I can absolutely assure everyone out there that I will NEVER stop until this is seen through. i will not walk away from $370,000.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone who has further ideas about how to move this process along.
 
I'd love to hear the recording where the CEO threatened to never give your money if you faxed HSBC again.
 
YouTradeFX SCAM

I'd love to hear the recording where the CEO threatened to never give your money if you faxed HSBC again.

Actually, he was telling me that I had to fax the HSBC to let them know everything was ok before he would send me more money. Interestingly, I rechecked my dates and the recording itself and I realize that once that fax went in, and he gave me the schedule of payments, I never got any more money. I have sent in another fax to the HSBC to let them know this. I would love some help on this. Michael seems to pop up and deal with things on this site but it seems in my case he has gone very quiet. Would going to Traders Court help? Frankly, I have no real desire to get into some big international take down, what I really want is my money!
 
Hello Michael! Paging Michael Mimouni.

Please report to this thread so that Amheinrichs doesn't have to get into some big international takedown.
 
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