Unfolding the mystery behind Instaforex real owners and activities

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They say "don't feed the troll". But...
The intervention of "rasput" (sorry, "распут") in this thread allows us to make a perfect transition to illustrate the transatlantic ties of these scoundrels network.

I wouldn’t be so sure of that, friend. If companies are registered in one offshore, this does not mean that they are connected.
Do you know that almost all brokers that provide favorable trading conditions are registered in the offshore?
Are you just offended by them?

You really got to admire the clout with which these paid shills for Instaforex-Mayzus (and others connected) are defining as "favourable trading conditions" the systematic fleecing of traders worldwide thanks to dodgy techniques such as the combination of "bonus policies", 1 to 1000 leverage, and private (and under control) arbitration to "solve" the issues with traders who would dare to complain about the decisions of "antifraud departments".

There are three reasons why all of them are registered offshore :
1. because their practices are illegal in most countries where their "clients" (victims) are located
2. because it provides the degree of opacity required to conceal their connection and their identity, while making legal proceedings against them difficult
3. because it allows tax evasion

There is one reason why they all use the same set of (equally connected) registered agents to incorporate in the jurisdictions they operate from : because the same colluding group of individuals will tend to work with the same group of providers, on and on. And, when you are incorporating thousands of shady companies, at some point in time, it becomes easier to manage things this way.

There is another saying : "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then...."

Are we offended by them ? Not personally, no.
We are just despaired to see how retail forex trading has been turned into nothing but a rigged casino, where traders are playing against the house while thinking they are investing on the markets.
We are despaired to see the little circle of colluding groups having cornered the market and turned a once respectable financial services regulator (CySec) into nothing more than a registration chamber for their scams.
We are despaired to see how this exact same group of individuals has turned a promising technology and market (cryptocurrencies) into a swamp populated almost exclusively by scams.
We are despaired to see how this exact same group of individuals facilitates money laundering on a large scale.

Are they offending per se? Well, when each and every of your actions falls under the label "criminal offence", you obviously become offending.

 

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So, to illustrate this global collusion, let's take the sample of "The Financial Commission".
Its name itself sounds reassuring. It seems legit, almost government-issued.

It regulates reputable institutions such as Royal Bank, in Bulgaria, which itself is partnering, as per proudly displayed on its website royalcbank.com with such highly reputable institutions as the London Stock Exchange or Deutsche Borse Group.

Wait.
Anyone with a minimum financial education (such as, for an example, the very respectable "Financial Commission" representatives) knows that the use of the word "Bank" is a privilege reserved to chartered banks, i.e financial institutions duly authorised and regulated by national central banks.
After verification, it looks like Maraya Capital limited, a Bulgarian company, is not registered in any capacity with the Bulgarian National Bank.
Actually, it appears this company doesn't exist at all...

Here are the headquarters of" Royal Bank" (apartment is on the 3rd floor) :

 

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So, our highly reputable "Financial Commission" will allow traders to solve their issues with the equally highly reputable though non existing (but still "Financial Commission" regulated) Royal Bank, which services are provided by an unregistered Bulgarian company with their offices on the last floor of a residential building in Sofia

A guarantee fund of 20,000 USD has apparently been provided, according to "Financial Commission" by Royal Bank, so traders which would be harmed by its activities would be compensated up to this amount.

Well, if that is not reassuring, what can be ?

So, let's leave aside for the moment this Bulgarian connection, we'll come back to it later on, and let's take a look at who is "Financial Commission", which does not regulate only the highly reputable "Royal Bank" but also the highly reputable Alpari.

According to their website financialcommission.org, they are operated by two companies, one in Hong Kong (Finacom PLC Ltd), and the other one in London (Finacom Management Ltd).

So, let's meet Finacom Management Ltd, a rock solid 2 (yes, two) GBP registered capital UK company, dormant until 2019.

Peter Tatarnikov, which is also Chairman of the "Financial Commission", is the former CEO of Forex Club.
Alexey Pavlenko, member of the board of the "Financial Commission" is the current CEO of Forex Club.

Of course, this will have absolutely no importance when a trader will lodge a complaint against the "Financial Commission" regulated member Forex Club, will it ?

Especially that the fact that Peter Tatarnikov has received, back in the days, a quite decent fine from the NFA for various issues linked to FX Club, the US operating company of Forex Club (see attached file), including but not limited to failure to properly report trades, doesn't seem that reassuring, all of a sudden.

 

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Now, the very interesting thing with the "Financial Commission" resides not only into its board members (we'll come back to this later on), but in the fact that it has sister organisations.
Meet the "Blockchain Association", with its website blockchainassociation.io, equally managed by Finacom Management in London and Finacom PLC Ltd in Hong-Kong, which is " Protecting Investors and Traders since 2013" (yes, sure, through a company created in 2016) :

And meet the head of its Experts commission (the guys who will intervene to protect the traders in case a crypto company regulated by the Blockchain Association misbehaves) :

 

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Wait. The head of the "Blockain Association" expert committee is the head of Forex and Crypto research at forexbrokers.com ?

The same forexbrokers.com website whose Forex & Crypto research department produces breathtaking, in depth comparisons of brokers such as this one: Alpari vs FXTM ? (see attached file)

For the ones who do not know this evident fact, FXTM = Alpari.
Same owner, Andrey Valerievich Dashin.
Same co-shareholder, Olga Rybalkina, CEO of FXTM.

Not sure it requires the many months spent comparing 28 brokers over 2,200 data points that forexbrokers.com, to arrive at the brilliant conclusion that these companies perform the same :
"After assessing forex brokers on nearly 100 different features, both Alpari and ForexTime (FXTM) hold a 3.50 star rating."

 

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Let's add the Instaforex - Mayzus network in the mix, through a quick analysis of the other members of the " Financial Commission" :
DealFX, operated from a Marshall Islands company, same address as usual.
Olymp Trade, a distinguished ShowFXWorld prize recipient.
Gerchin & Co, operated by J.B. FINANCE LLP, a UK company headquartered 27 Old Gloucester Road, which, as we indicated previously, is one of the addresses tied to Mayzus and Sharipov.
Grand Capital, operating from Saint-Vincent & Grenadines, usual address.

But, of course, according to "rasput", all of this is pure coincidence

So now is the time to start exploring the Estonian, and Bulgarian, ties of all these people.

 

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Let’s take a sample of how a typical Russian forex kitchen belonging to this little circle of colluding individuals is structured, by taking the example of the seemingly (at least until recently) virtuous and highly reputable Admiral Markets (admiralmarkets.com), offering an apparently perfectly legit and transparent structure, organised as a “group of companies”, with licenses in various reputable (or at least supposed so) countries.

Admiral Markets has four separate licenses : in the UK, in Cyprus, in Estonia and in Australia, each license being granted to, and operated by, a different company, which is duly registered and reporting in the corresponding country.

So far, so good, and if one would raise the question of why a forex company is supporting the cost of maintaining three separate licenses in the European Union, as one would suffice to operate legally in all member states, somebody like our Instaforex-Mayzus paid shill “rasput” would certainly stand up and give a perfectly coherent explanation, along the lines of :

a} The founder of Admiral Markets, Aleksander Tsikhilov (АЛЕКСАНДЪР МАГОМЕДОВИЧ ЦИХИЛОВ), is Russian, but started his business in Estonia, and that is where their flagship company, Admiral Markets AS is located, so presence in Estonia is due to historical factors.

b) UK FCA is probably the most reputable financial services supervision authority in Europe, so it was better for marketing purposes to be regulated by FCA rather than simply in Estonia.

c) Due to Brexit-related uncertainties, it was important to have another license in Europe, and CySec is a very well known and reputable regulator, granting licenses to most of the large forex companies (more on that later).

Of course, this would be without taking into account the incorporation dates of the companies, but who cares ?

So nothing new under the sun, everything is fine, perfectly clean forex brand, working in full transparency through four equally perfectly legit companies, it is not even connected in anyway to the “Financial Commission”, has nothing to do with other forex brands, and all this story about collusion and fraud is nothing but a figment of our imagination, right ?


Wrong. Time to meet Maksim Petrov.

 

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Maksim Petrov (Максим Евгеньевич Петров) is a very interesting person, who gave, in 2014, an interview in “Finance Magnates” (https://www.financemagnates.com/exe...xplains-the-brokers-rebranding-into-mtrading/) representing himself as the CEO of Admiral Markets Ltd.

Here is the title of this publication : “Admiral Markets Ltd’s CEO, Petrov Explains Rebranding into MTrading”.

MTrading, the operator of the website mtrading.com, is currently operated by ServiceComsvg Ltd, a Saint-Vincent & Grenadines company, incorporated in 2017 and the secretive General Brent LP, an Irish company registered under number LP1773(more on this later).

And guess who is a proud member of the “Financial Commission” ? MTrading.

Of course, the Admiral Markets Ltd / MTrading managed by Maksim Petrov has nothing to do with the UK company Admiral Markets UK Ltd (registration number 08171762) managed, amongst others, by Sergey Bogatenkov, the Chairman and CEO of the Estonian company Admiral Markets AS, flagship of the Admiral Markets group of companies.

Before 2017, the offshore activities of Admiral Markets Ltd / MTrading were managed by another offshore company, this one in the British Virgin Islands : ProServiceCom Ltd.

And this one definitely has ties with Admiral Markets AS, as demonstrated by the ICCJ offshore leaks database (Mossack Fonseca / Panama Papers source) :

So, for the moment, Admiral Markets perfect matches the “clean side” (European regulation) / “dark side” (Offshore operations) affectioned by our little network of colluding individuals.

As “simply put” by Maksim Petrov in his 2014 interview with “Finance Magnates” :

“Simply put, MTrading is the better fit for our purposes. Admiral Markets is a thirteen-year-old brand coming from a white-collar financial background of Europe and as much as we want to move rapidly and cater to the entire world, we simply have a financial culture that we’ve built over a long period of time that cannot respond to all the needs out there. MTrading has an advantage of not being tight to the overall needs of the world, but catering to the specific audience”

Translation : yes, we are regulated in Europe, but don’t worry, we are taking the “creative”, no limits, Russian bucket shop business (a.k.a “fleecing the traders”) offshore.

 

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Now, of course, Aleksander Tsikhilov was a bit embarrassed when the second wave, ICCJ managed, of Mossack Fonseca documents was published in 2016, and he did try to make some kind of damage control.

In an interview to Aripaev, the leading business newspaper in Estonia (Admiral Markets: kasutasime offshore'i opereerimiseks - Äripäev ), Aleksander Tsikhilov did everything he could to try to distance Admiral Markets group of companies (and himself) from Admiral Markets offshore operations (and Maksim Petrov), leading to somewhat amusing declarations such as :

• The fact that this company was used before the European Union enacted its directive on financial services because, “Before that, our business was not licensed at all in the world”. National financial regulation authorities in multiple countries where these people operate, such as ASEAN countries where MTrading has the habit of being blacklisted by regulators, will certainly enjoy this remark.

• The fact that this offshore company Admiral Markets Ltd was sold to Maksim Petrov in 2012, who renamed it Proservicecom Ltd "So this company has had nothing to do with us for years”.

Notwithstanding the fact that Maksim Petrov is giving interviews in 2014 to support a “rebranding” to MTrading, showing in itself that there was about 2 years of “transition period”, we beg to differ on the absence of links between Admiral Markets “clean side” and its offshore operations.

Time to visit Bulgaria.

 

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Maksim Petrov happens to be the owner, amongst others, of the Bulgarian company Admiral Markets EOOD (company number 103893198).

This company, incorporated in 2009 by Aleksander Tsikhilov, has been transferred in full, in 2014 to Maksim Petrov, which is the reason why it doesn’t appear anywhere in the official organization of Admiral Markets nowadays.

Amongst the other managers of this company are Chavnar Dinev Dragiev, and Vasil Mihaylov Banov.

Vasil Mihaylov Banov, a Bulgarian citizen, is also a manager of the Bulgarian company Admiral Markets AS Klon Balgariya KCHT (202214229), along with another Bulgarian, Dimitar Dimov Tsonev, and a Russian citizen : Viktor Gerbovet.

Viktor Gerbovet happens to be one of the managers of Admiral Markets UK Ltd.

Surprisingly, for a company which has nothing to do anymore with Admiral Markets, Admiral Markets EOOD (which was obviously not part of the “rebranding”) is still registered at the same address as Admiral Markets AS Klon Balgariya KCHT (see attached documents).

We will follow up on Vasil Banov, Dimitar Tsonev and Chavnar Dragiev, as they certainly are opening some very interesting doors.

Let’s simply keep in mind for the moment that our Instaforex-Mayzus friends are very much active in Bulgaria too, and not only due to the fact that the company Sofia Proconsult (formerly Insta Sofia) has been identified by the local financial services authorities as the operator of the website instaforex.com, or because it is the country where Currentec EOOD operates the Mega Transfer money service in spite of the revocation of its authorization to do so.

Now is time to go back in Estonia to follow the money in the Admiral Markets Ltd offshore operations case.