scammed by GTCFX and Leo Invest plc

Hi all,
Good day,
I’m here to complain on behalf of one of my clients who have been scammed by one of the Forex brokers. Since my client can speak or write in English, I’m going to tell all story of how it happened and you traders and mods can judge on this.

The story begun when my client was looking for account managing service he can hire to manage his account under some Forex broker. He found Leo invest plc site that does account managing and works with “regulated and none regulated” forex brokers. He sent them a message and someone “Ahmed Alkadah” from Leo invest plc gave him a call to provide information regarding their account managing service. The caller voted for gtcfx.com to open a real account with under leo invest with a minimum of $10K USD. Then a rep from gtcfx called the client to follow up with him till the deposit was made to the real account. All required documents were submitted at that time and the account was activated. And next few days, the client called the broker gtcfx to withdraw all deposit and the profit made. At this point, the account hit a profit of 71% so that total was almost $17K USD. The client then talked to the broker to change his account type so he can handle it by himself, but they rejected. They mentioned that Leo invest is the one you should ask to withdraw your deposit+ profit. They also mentioned that Leo invest account manager has to approve your request on withdrawing your deposit; otherwise, you can’t get your money back.
The client then went to contact both Leo invest and gtcfx broker and got no response for emails or calls. He then went writing some threads after a week or so on forex forums mainly Arabic ones warning those who deal with the company and the broker, and complaining about what happened.
A week later, the broker contacted the client informing him that next 94 hours the issue will be solved, and unfortunately, nothing happened. When the client kept writing more again about his story, the broker called him again informing that they “gtcfx broker” will return back the deposit ONLY which is $9300 USD not $10,000 USD as they state. The original deposit was $10,000 exactly and was sent from Net West Bank. Also, the account statement shows the main deposit, which is $10K. I can attach the state if needed as proof.
The broker said they will pay back the original deposit ($9,300USD not the $10,000USD) in 10 business days, and that message was sent on October 08th, 2012 and was due October 22nd, 2012. However, till today, which is October 30, 2012 nothing was sent to the client bank account.

The strange thing is that the client says to me that he never signed any contract with Leo invest, but they managed his account anyways. Till this point the client has not been paid yet his money back and no response from Leo invest on this issue. And the broker gtcfx doesn’t want to pay back client deposit for the reason he signed a contract with Leo invest.
On October 21st , 2012 the client got a strange message from “Ahmed Alkadah” a rep at Leo invest plc saying that he has no idea why the client still has an account with gtcfx, and what kind of service is applied from Leo invest to the client account.

I have all emails “in Arabic” between the client and gtcfx broker on the withdrawal as well as the client contact number if anything is needed.
I leave this issue to you traders and mods to judge on this issue. At the same time, this is a warning to those who deal with forex brokers such GTCFX and hire account managing service companies such as Leo invest.

Broker name: GTCFX
Website: gtcfx.com
Regulation: unregulated broker

Account managing company: Leo Invest Plc
Website: www.leoinvestplc.com
Regulation: FSA UK – 521108 - Leo Invest plc
Current status: 25/03/2010
Address: 33 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2

Looking forward to hearing your comments about all what happened in this story.

Best wishes

Fxdigi-cash

 

Start by contacting the Irish authorities about Leo Invest. Also, have your client ask his bank about filing internet-based financial fraud charges against the broker.

 

@pharaoh, Thanks for the comments. I have one question though, why to contact the Irish authorities about Leo Invest? why not FSA UK since they hold a license from them? or is it because their location base?

I will inform the client about filing internet-based financial fraud charges against GTCFX as soon as possible.

Thanks, and I will keep updating this case whenever possible.

Regards,

fxdigi-cash

 

Hi fxdigi-cash

i do apologies for my confusion,you wrote "The caller voted for gtcfx.com to open a real account with under leo invest " is Leo Invest the Account Holder at GTCFX or your Client? From what i understand Leo Invest is the account holder. Under FSA regulation,FSA registered Firms strickly prohibited to advice their client to open an account with unauthorised firms/brokers not to mention interacting with broker directly! ouch. You could also try FSA .

 

Enforcing the Law
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/doing/regulated/law/alerts/unauthorised-firms

 

Hi ada1976,

Thanks for your comments, and no need to apologize, mate.

The called was the account manager from Leo Invest plc because they manage accounts for some brokers. The thing is that my client wanted to have his account managed at the beginning, but next day before anything happened, he requested to handle his account by himself. I sill don't get it how could Leo Invest handle his account without signing any contract !!

well, Leo Invest is an account manager that can manage accounts for clients under their brokers list.

I believe you are right, I will make sure that the client go for filing internet-based financial fraud charges against GTCFX first and then contact FSA UK to see what they can do regarding Leo Invest plc fraud.

by the way, that is great catch. GTCFX is unregulated and thus FSA UK will go after Leo Invest for such Big mistake.

Thanks, and I will keep this thread updated from time to time.

Regards,

fxdigi-cash

 

We are all in this together, my opinion since they are based in London you should also go after GTCFX for their unauthorised financial activities in UK, such activities also forbiden by FSA.

 

@ada, Thanks for your kind words.

I think you are right going after GTCFX in UK since FSA is strict about such activities. will go for it.

There is a major update I received from my client; an email he got from gtcfx.com in Arabic, and here is the translation:

Now I guess it is obvious GTCFX is changing their mind about Leo Invest managing the client account, and declared they don't know who is doing that!!!

I'm just wondering what if the one who managed the client account made losses instead of winnings, would they say the same thing? I don't think they will return his deposit anyway in such case...

Nevertheless, I guess the client is going to sign some document and then they will send him his money back, hopefully.

we are waiting to see what would happen next...

Thanks everyone, will keep it updated...

Regards,

fxdigi-cash

 

The UK includes Norther Ireland. Dublin is the capital of the Republic of Ireland, which is not part of the UK. I'd say this means complaining to the Irish Authorities would be a reasonable step.

If they've got a UK FSA license, complain there too.

 

Excuse my language for their quoting about “Power of Attorney “ I don’t know whether they been dumb or smart!!!!!!!. Did they at any point asked your client for any kind of signature before accepting $ 10K. Why now? Personally I would sign nothing. I would try firs settling this matter with all parties(LEO& GTCFX) by submitting all my new findings and informing them about all the regulations. One should cover all the angels. These things don’t have resolution overnight. They will try every effort to break you and each time you must break that door down by solid facts nothing but facts.
Did Leo Invest or person who act on behalf had adequate regard to whether your client had the relevant knowledge and experience to understand the risk involved in the specific type of investments. For example was your client advice to invest the all his funds into unregulated scheme?. This person did him/her taking reasonable steps to ensure they obtained necessary information to which they made personal recommendation?