mlawson71

The American derivatives regulator CTFC is investigating three Forex investment companies for Ponzi scheme activities.

The companies are named Financial Tree, Financial Solution Group, and New Money Advisors and are run by John D. Black, Joseph Tufo and Christopher Mancuso. Those three individuals have been conducting their investment scams since 2015.

They have allegedly scammed $15.5 million out of investors by offering them binary options and Forex trading. They used $11 million of those money to pay back investors so that the scam can be perpetuated, and spent the rest on luxury trips, gambling, home renovations and other expenses.

Ponzi scammers start dropping huge amounts of money on a luxury lifestyle and that’s how they get caught every time, it seems.

Skrill, which is one of the major player in the online payment services industry, has decided to introduce a free Money Transfer service in the United States.

The company first launched a Money Transfer in Europe two years ago. The service quickly became quite popular as it facilitated money transfers from person to person in over 40 countries. As the pandemic picked up and its consequences begun to be felt widely the company began dropping its commissions. It has also dropped its foreign exchange charges in many places all over the world.

It is now dropping these commissions in the United States both for old and new users. The service covers 18 different countries, among which are Mexico and India, together with major Asian and European jurisdictions.

The company already made a statement that they are doing that to help users who have issues due to the pandemic. I think that’s really helpful and I hope that other online payment services will follow suit, at least those who are large enough to afford it.

The United Kingdom financial regulator Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued another warning about a clone company. The company in question is called Cash2All. Naturally, it has no license to operate in the jurisdiction overseen by the FCA. What is more, since it is a clone company, Cash2All is using the details and information of a company that is, indeed, properly licensed by the aforementioned regulator. The FCA is also suspecting that the clone company is knowingly and deliberately participating in investment scams.  Any and all people that have been in contact with this scammer are urged by the regulator to call them immediately.

To reiterate the FCA warning – when you sign up with a broker always double check its information with the regulator that they claim has provided their license.

How do people see such a name and think "Yes, this sounds legitimate" will always be something I just do not understand.

The Australian police recently apprehended a 52-year old female suspect for illegal transactions of digital currencies for millions of dollars.

The woman was arrested in a Sidney shopping mall by the New South Wales State Police this Thursday. The police also confiscated some $40 000 in cash and 3.8 bitcoin.

According to the police reported the apprehended woman was part of  crime syndicate that engages in illegal exchange of digital currencies.

The investigation into said activities was started back in 2018. Matthew Craft, Cybercrime Squad Commander issued the following statement: “It will be alleged as part of this investigation that the cryptocurrency wallet used by the individuals involved has transacted since 2017 over 326 Bitcoin.”

Source

I wonder sort of criminal activity was funded with that money. I hope they find out.

South Africa has become yet another country to adopt legislation regulating the increasingly popular cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin may not have been very impressive lately, but it turns out that 10.7% of South African internet users have invested in the cryptocurrency in some way, which drew the attention of the authorities.
The Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG), among the members of which are the South African Reserve Bank, the Financial Sector Conduct Authority and the National Treasury, issued a policy paper, according to which cryptocurrencies will “remain without legal tender status.”
They are also seeking to create a a crypto oversight framework in order to regulate the local cryptocurrency industry. There will be license issuing guidelines and a push for detailed cash flow reports.
Source

They could have done a lot more to embrace cryptos, but this is not a bad first step, I think.