This thread picks up from my review of Universal-FX posted in the Forex Broker folder on 14 Dec 2012. At that point, Universal refused to transfer back CHF 9,531 which triggered my initial review.
Over the following weekend Dragan Djordjevic Universal Account Mgr dropped me an Email stating that “... we can NOT access fully to our Credit Suisse bank account, so you have to sign the document that is confirming that you want your money back… “ and that the transfer will be made immediately.
This request was idiotic as I was not a party to any commercial arrangements with Credit Suisse. But just for the sake of completeness, I sent Universal-FX the requested letter (addressed to Credit Suisse and written in perfect German) re-stating the withdrawal request together with my banking details as per Universal’s instructions.
This letter went out on Monday 17 Dec 2012.
On the next day, Dragan Djordjevic provided me with his direct phone number so I called him in Serbia for a 10 min chat. He could not clearly explain why Universal-FX was deprived of the full control of their account with Credit Suisse. He mooted something about licencing problems but not to worry: Universal-FX will fight with Credit Suisse and the money should be returned to me at some stage, though not immediately because of Christmas, and holidays in Zurich, and complex shift changes within the Universal-FX time zones etc, etc…
In this moment I found myself in a highly unusual situation: Universal-FX completely evaporated as counterparty to my brokerage services, and in one glorious moment they became my agent (without my consent, mind you but why to bother with such trivia!).
So my newly self-appointed agent will fight on my half the Credit Suisse demon and any other ghost if and when they emerge - all I have to do is wait. But I didn't.
In the afternoon of the same day I walked into the local office of Credit Suisse at level 31, 1 Macquarie Place in Sydney to run a sanity check of the Universal-FX proposition. I was lucky to be granted an appointment with Vice President for Legal and Compliance Credit Suisse Management (Australia) Pty Limited . We exchanged business cards and I outlined the contractual landscape in sufficient details, supported by original documents including my passport.
The Vice President stated that based on his 17 years work experience with ASIC prior to joining Credit Suisse, his position was:
a) There is dishonesty on behalf of Universal-FX. The contractual arrangements exist only between Universal-FX as an account holder and Credit Suisse as a banking services provider. I am a mere 3rd party with no contractual standing for making any withdrawal request directly to Credit Suisse.
b) Universal-FX, and not Credit Suisse, is the controlling authority over the account. Credit Suisse will just execute withdrawal or transfer instructions made by Universal-FX without being concerned of who the beneficiaries are.
c) The banking accounts are either fully operational or fully closed. There is no such thing as a partial authority where Universal-FX will issue a withdrawal instruction that is still subject to Credit Suisse’s approval.
I thanked him for the obvious (as I shared his views) and immediately wrote to Universal-FX on this finding.
I have not heard from Universal-FX since then (18 Dec 2012), and predictably money has not arrived to my account at the time of writing. This is 23 days from my original withdrawal request.
My conclusions:
Based on my own experience so far, Universal-FX is a bunch of unsophisticated crooks who run a simple business model of stealing clients’ money. They have no need for Virtual Dealer, B-booking and any other brokerage fancy stuff – just a direct theft will do.
They have no offices in any location quoted on their web site. Four (4) support staff provide website presence working from their home basis. These four (4) are full accomplices to the two (2) directors based in Switzerland. That’s all that is needed to run this criminal syndicate.
A basic backdoor calculation of broker profitability will easily establish that their operation, assumed to be based on extremely low spreads and commissions as advertised on their website, is unsustainable as on-going concern. The purpose of these falsified adverts is to attract new clients to fund their accounts without providing the true brokerage services.
At the time of writing, the Universal-FX is still flashing their fraudulent website to attract naive victims.
The time has come to formally call UNIVERSAL-FX a SCAM.
I move for the following measures to be implemented:
1. Declaration of Universal-FX as Scam on the FPA website.
2. Creation of a Blacklist for individuals involved in scams. This list should include directors and employees working for fraudulent companies. These two (2) directors and four (4) employees named in the Universal-FX threads should initiate this Blacklist.
For my part, I stand ready to submit all documented in an unedited form for FPA’s evaluation. There will be some 50 Emails including attachments available for your total and unrestricted scrutiny.
Please consider.
Oze
Over the following weekend Dragan Djordjevic Universal Account Mgr dropped me an Email stating that “... we can NOT access fully to our Credit Suisse bank account, so you have to sign the document that is confirming that you want your money back… “ and that the transfer will be made immediately.
This request was idiotic as I was not a party to any commercial arrangements with Credit Suisse. But just for the sake of completeness, I sent Universal-FX the requested letter (addressed to Credit Suisse and written in perfect German) re-stating the withdrawal request together with my banking details as per Universal’s instructions.
This letter went out on Monday 17 Dec 2012.
On the next day, Dragan Djordjevic provided me with his direct phone number so I called him in Serbia for a 10 min chat. He could not clearly explain why Universal-FX was deprived of the full control of their account with Credit Suisse. He mooted something about licencing problems but not to worry: Universal-FX will fight with Credit Suisse and the money should be returned to me at some stage, though not immediately because of Christmas, and holidays in Zurich, and complex shift changes within the Universal-FX time zones etc, etc…
In this moment I found myself in a highly unusual situation: Universal-FX completely evaporated as counterparty to my brokerage services, and in one glorious moment they became my agent (without my consent, mind you but why to bother with such trivia!).
So my newly self-appointed agent will fight on my half the Credit Suisse demon and any other ghost if and when they emerge - all I have to do is wait. But I didn't.
In the afternoon of the same day I walked into the local office of Credit Suisse at level 31, 1 Macquarie Place in Sydney to run a sanity check of the Universal-FX proposition. I was lucky to be granted an appointment with Vice President for Legal and Compliance Credit Suisse Management (Australia) Pty Limited . We exchanged business cards and I outlined the contractual landscape in sufficient details, supported by original documents including my passport.
The Vice President stated that based on his 17 years work experience with ASIC prior to joining Credit Suisse, his position was:
a) There is dishonesty on behalf of Universal-FX. The contractual arrangements exist only between Universal-FX as an account holder and Credit Suisse as a banking services provider. I am a mere 3rd party with no contractual standing for making any withdrawal request directly to Credit Suisse.
b) Universal-FX, and not Credit Suisse, is the controlling authority over the account. Credit Suisse will just execute withdrawal or transfer instructions made by Universal-FX without being concerned of who the beneficiaries are.
c) The banking accounts are either fully operational or fully closed. There is no such thing as a partial authority where Universal-FX will issue a withdrawal instruction that is still subject to Credit Suisse’s approval.
I thanked him for the obvious (as I shared his views) and immediately wrote to Universal-FX on this finding.
I have not heard from Universal-FX since then (18 Dec 2012), and predictably money has not arrived to my account at the time of writing. This is 23 days from my original withdrawal request.
My conclusions:
Based on my own experience so far, Universal-FX is a bunch of unsophisticated crooks who run a simple business model of stealing clients’ money. They have no need for Virtual Dealer, B-booking and any other brokerage fancy stuff – just a direct theft will do.
They have no offices in any location quoted on their web site. Four (4) support staff provide website presence working from their home basis. These four (4) are full accomplices to the two (2) directors based in Switzerland. That’s all that is needed to run this criminal syndicate.
A basic backdoor calculation of broker profitability will easily establish that their operation, assumed to be based on extremely low spreads and commissions as advertised on their website, is unsustainable as on-going concern. The purpose of these falsified adverts is to attract new clients to fund their accounts without providing the true brokerage services.
At the time of writing, the Universal-FX is still flashing their fraudulent website to attract naive victims.
The time has come to formally call UNIVERSAL-FX a SCAM.
I move for the following measures to be implemented:
1. Declaration of Universal-FX as Scam on the FPA website.
2. Creation of a Blacklist for individuals involved in scams. This list should include directors and employees working for fraudulent companies. These two (2) directors and four (4) employees named in the Universal-FX threads should initiate this Blacklist.
For my part, I stand ready to submit all documented in an unedited form for FPA’s evaluation. There will be some 50 Emails including attachments available for your total and unrestricted scrutiny.
Please consider.
Oze