ASIC secures interim injunctions against Forex Capital Trading
Australian Court has issued orders restraining Forex Capital Trading from transferring any property, including client money, overseas.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) continues to tighten its grip over the retail FX sector, the regulator has earlier today announced that it has appeared before the Federal Court in Melbourne as part of its action to protect investor funds in OTC derivatives issuer, Forex Capital Trading Pty Ltd, while an ASIC investigation is underway.
The website of Forex Capital Trading Pty Ltd, operating as ForexCT, claims the company is “the number one choice of margin Forex and CFD traders around the world”.
On March 12, 2019, ASIC obtained ex parte interim orders in the Federal Court against Forex Capital Trading that restrained the company from removing their assets from Australia, disposing of their property and freezing monies in its bank account. In addition, the orders prevented the sole director, Shlomi Yoshai, from leaving Australia.
On March 18, 2019, and March 19, 2019, the matter returned before the court where ASIC sought an extension of the interim orders. The court, however, declined the extension of the freezing orders. The Court issued orders to prevent Mr Yoshai from leaving Australia until 5:00pm on Monday, March 25, 2019 and to restrain Forex Capital Trading from transferring any property, including client money, overseas.
The matter is due before the court on May 20, 2019.
In a similar action, in December 2018, ASIC announced it had obtained orders from the Federal Court against Berndale Capital Securities, its associated entities, and ex-director Stavro D’Amore, freezing their bank accounts and preventing them from selling or otherwise dealing with their property without ASIC’s consent.
The regulator suspects that Berndale and D’Amore may have breached client money obligations, and contravened other laws. Berndale was a retail OTC derivative issuer and its Australian Financial Services licence was cancelled on November 22, 2018. At the same time, Mr D’Amore was banned from providing financial services for a period of six years.
