FXCM due to answer to complaints in Murrah case by June 9, 2017

The legal proceedings against FXCM in the New York Southern District Court gather pace, with the latest developments concerning the case captioned Murrah v. Forex Capital Markets LLC et al (1:17-cv-03700). As FinanceFeeds reported earlier this week, the case could not join the “mega lawsuit” against FXCM, which already combines four cases and is spearheaded by The Rosen Law Firm as a lead counsel.

Doris Murrah, the plaintiff, has filed a complaint against Global Brokerage Inc (NASDAQ:GLBR), FXCM Holdings, Forex Capital Markets LLC, William Ahdout and Dror Niv. According to the latest court updates, the affidavits of service of complaints were submitted on May 23, 2017, with the court. The affidavits concern FXCM Holdings, LLC, and Forex Capital Markets, LLC. Both companies have until June 9, 2017, to file their answers.

FXCM Holdings LLC has no current status, according to the United States National Futures Association. Forex Capital Markets LLC has an NFA permanent bar imposed on it as of March 10, 2017. This followed a settlement with US regulators announced on February 6, 2017.

The legal burden on FXCM continues to grow. In the coming months, the company and several of its principals will have to answer in another lawsuit too – the one combining the following four cases:

• 1:17-cv-01028 (Blinn v. FXCM Inc. et al);
• 1:17-cv-00955 (Zhao v. FXCM Inc. et al);
• 1:17-cv-00916 (Khoury et al v. FXCM Inc. et al);
• 1:17-cv-02506 (683 Capital Partners, LP et al v. Global Brokerage, Inc. f/k/a FXCM Inc. et al.)

Although Global Brokerage Inc, known in the past as FXCM Inc, has stated several times that it will defend itself in all these cases, it is obvious that the fight will be long and costly. Whereas Global Brokerage faces the threat of default in case it gets delisted from NASDAQ, FXCM Group, in which Global Brokerage has an indirect effective interest of 37.3%, is under pressure to repay the loan to Leucadia and is seeking to sell its non-core assets, including Lucid Markets and V3 Markets. As FinanceFeeds reported on May 23, 2017, FXCM Group has agreed to sell its stake in FastMatch for $55.6 million to Euronext.

Meanwhile, it became clear that a number of top executives of Global Brokerage, including Drew Niv, who has resigned as Global Brokerage’s interim CEO earlier this month, are foregoing a part of their annual bonuses considering the financial condition of the company.