85 year old woman behind the fake London binary options firm addresses exposed
Ever wondered why binary options scammers are allowed to claim that they are based in Britain when they are not? Or why they all seem to have the same address? Or perhaps even more interestingly, how they get away with it. Here is the link between binary options fraudsters and their enabler in Britain
85 year old Barbara Kahan is long since retired, and is no longer in the best of health. She would most certainly considered by the authorities and every member of British society to be a senior citizen, whose time should now be spent relaxing and enjoying social activities.
Ms. Kahan has been far more active than that, however, as she is listed as the founding director of 25,802 companies in the United Kingdom, and is present on all of their documentation which is filed with Companies House.
Now, as a result of an investigation by FinanceFeeds and British news source The Times, it is now completely transparent as to what the link is between unregulated companies with a London address, and Israeli binary options scammers.
2 Woodberry Grove London, N12 0DR – Innocuous middle class Finchley residence, or enabler of massive scams?
During the past few years, it has been quite obvious that many very unsavory binary options brands, and in some cases unregulated FX firms with no connection to a live market which live from the losses of clients that they trade against, their owners and operators coming from the Israeli lead buying and affiliate marketing/gaming background rather than genuine FinTech or investment banking as per those in bona fide jurisdictions with an actual career to their name, are all using the same address, that being 2 Woodberry Grove London, N12 0DR United Kingdom.
This is a residential house in Finchley, an affluent middle class suburb of North London.
FinanceFeeds can reveal that Ms. Kahan is behind the connection between nefarious binary options scammers and their ability to show a London address on their website, as well as to be able to enable the binary options firms that are out to rip off British customers to do so on the false pretence that they are in Britain.
Ms. Kahan was until recently a director of A1 Company Services, a specialist in company formation that operates from the Finchley address. Businesses in every sector from rubbish clearers to online pornographers, financial scammers to perfectly legitimate retailers and restaurateurs have been served and established by this firm of consultants.
According to a report on this by The Times yesterday, government ministers are worried that the process is an open door for improper businesses, terrorists and money launderers. Britain’s company formation procedure is one of the easiest in the western world.
Scammers often use a UK address – common practice in the case of binary options firms and unregulated b-book FX firms from Israel which all seem to use the same address – to give their businesses an air of legitimacy.
The entire binary options business was very recently termed “the fastest-growing iteration of investment fraud” by the City of London police. Complaints about such schemes have spiked this year, the force said, with the average loss topping £20,000, yet the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) does absolutely nothing to stop these criminals from pretending to be based in the UK and conducting their fraudulent schemes on British soil. Instead, the FCA has set about doing damage to the long-established, well recognized CFD industry which is led by top quality, publicly listed British firms with senior executives that have extensive and illustrious career paths, and longstanding, loyal client bases which use their sophisticated and renowned proprietary technology for which London’s financial center is known.
Most binary options companies originate from the lead buying (or lead stealing) back-street society of gambling and online affiliate marketing entities which emanate from Israel. Exactly the type of business that Israel Securities Authority Chairman Professor Shmuel Hauser is doing his absolute best to extinguish globally. These entities then register their businesses in the Grenadine islands or Belize in order to escape prosecution in Israel, and are entirely unregulated by British authorities. Of the many dozens that offer online trading in the UK, only seven fall under British law. Many give the appearance that they are “British” businesses when they are not.
On January 21, 2014, A1 quite legally, incorporated a company called Worldwide Tech Ltd, listing Uri Katz, a 42-year-old Israeli businessman, as its sole director and Barbara Kahan as a further director. The company is the parent of UK Options, a binary trading company that, despite its name and a London address — since changed from A1’s location — is not regulated here.
It has been put on warning lists by Switzerland’s regulator, Finma, and by the British Columbia Securities Commission in Canada, for possibly operating without a licence.
The website is still in operation, enticing Brits into trading that is “fast, safe and profitable — even when global markets aren’t”. The Times approached the company for its comments on this, an no reply was forthcoming.
The Gambling Commission last week issued a warning regarding unlicensed binary options companies — which is most of the industry. It said: “An unlicensed [binary options] operator may be acting illegally. They will not abide by any code of conduct and have no incentive to deal fairly with you.”
Despite this, the FCA does nothing to block these entities from operating or from duping clients by pretending to be British, whereas France, Germany, Denmark, the United States, Holland and Belgium have all outlawed any binary options trading from their shores, and in some cases, even placed sanctions on payment services providers which facilitate it.
