CFTC settles with Tallinex’s introducing broker GTF
GTF gets to pay a fine and is banned from acting as an introducing broker.
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has informed the Utah District Court that it has reached a settlement to end the litigation against General Trader Fulfillment (GTF), an introducing broker to retail FX broker Tallinex.
From approximately September 2012 through the present, GTF has provided coaching and instruction in trading Forex to customers who subscribe to its services. During the relevant period, at least one GTF coach introduced US customers to Tallinex, an unregistered retail foreign exchange dealer (RFED), for the purpose of opening and maintaining individual retail foreign currency trading accounts at Tallinex and participating in off-exchange retail Forex transactions at Tallinex. By so doing, GTF, through the actions of its coach, acted as an IB without being registered with the Commission as such.
As per the proposed settlement, GTF is prohibited from acting as an introducing broker; entering into any transactions involving commodity interests; applying for registration with the Commission; acting as a principal, employee or an agent registered or required to be registered with the Commission.
The company is also ordered to pay a civil monetary penalty of $85,000.
In the meantime, Tallinex has remained unresponsive. Let’s recall that the CFTC managed to serve the complaint and the summons to Tallinex on August 15, 2017 at the company’s address in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The defendant, however, has failed to appear or otherwise defend, and the time allowed by law for answering has expired. As a result, in April this year, the CFTC secured a default order against Tallinex.
The CFTC complaint alleges that, from at least September 2012 to at least September 2016, Tallinex and its introducing broker General Trader Fulfillment (GTF) solicited or accepted orders from retail FX customers located in the United States, without having the necessary registration. The regulator is seeking (inter alia) a Court order requiring Defendants to pay civil monetary penalties in amounts the greater of: (i) $170,472 for each violation of the Act and Regulations; (ii) triple their monetary gain.
