Office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu makes statement urging a global ban on binary options

Astute, highly experienced and one of the world’s great economists, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a heavyweight political leader with over four decades of senior level military leadership, economic policy direction and diplomatic prowess.

His fourth term in office as Prime Minister this time round sealed his presence as a very familiar leader among the most economically developed nations on earth.

Four times Prime Minster of Israel, his first incumbency being between 1996 and 1999, before being re-elected in what would become record in that no previous Prime Minister has ever served three consecutive terms.

However, it is not necessarily Mr. Netanyahu’s Prime Ministerial position that made his name famous globally, it is his economic abilities, and how he steered the State of Israel to its top position during his tenure as Minister of Finance in the early 2000s.

Educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), one of the world’s finest educational establishments and having served in the highly elite Sayeret Matkal unit in the army as a combat soldier, Mr. Netanyahu is one of the old school. A leader of substance.

As leader of the country which he took his part in propelling to economic strength along with Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer in the 200os, it would be highly unlikely that Mr. Netanyahu’s office would take kindly to the same country that achieved such a feat is the same country from which the global binary options fraud operates, bringing its reputation into serious question, and reaching the regulatory and media entities of many nations globally.

France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, the United States and Denmark have all outlawed OTC binary options, labeling it a fraud, and the mainstream media from Britain to Australia has given Israel’s name a lashing in connecting it to the fraudulent activities that are causing worldwide regulators to lobby the Israeli government to put a stop to it.

Israel Securities Authority (ISA) Chairman Professor Shmuel Hauser managed to ban binary options within Israel itself, however the country has no jurisdiction over what happens overseas, and what is perpetrated by Israeli owners using offshore firms and targeting overseas clients with weighted gambling platforms that are disguised as financial markets environments, which really have no connection to finance, and are accused globally of stealing millions from retail customers.

Now, Mr. Netanyahu’s office has spoken out, articulating the government’s discourse via Prime Ministers Office Director General Eli Groner. On Friday last week, FinanceFeeds spoke to David Horowitz, Editor in Chief at the Times of Israel, who obtained the statement directly in Hebrew from the Prime Minister’s office that I have translated here:

“The Israel Securities Authority prohibits any company which solicits customers within Israel by offering binary options trading, and for good reason.”

“Taking advantage of innocent people who are not aware of the risks they are taking is unscrupulous.”

“When someone enters the casino, he knows he’s a gambler. But too often innocent people are losing their savings when they are tempted by offers to trade binary options marketed to them over the phone, without having the full extent of the risks to which they are exposed explained to them. We have no control over what is happening in other countries, but I hope that other countries will follow our example and make binary options completely illegal” – The Office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Jerusalem, Israel

For this sector, which arose not from the financial markets industry, and was not established by highly experienced professionals with institutional career backgrounds who have grown their businesses properly, but instead has its roots in lead buying (stealing in some cases!), affiliate marketing and gambling, a shadow is being cast over the genuine electronic trading industry globally, and because of the actions of the binary fraudsters, entire nations are taking action to block certain products from being sold to retail customers, which means that the good suffers because of the bad.

Steps in the right direction are being made, with ISA Chairman Professor Hauser having stepped up his activity with regard to expediting new laws to give him power to have the entire binary options sector abolished via a cross-border jurisdiction which means the ISA can work with other regulators and governments in order to ban it. Professor Hauser has referred to it as ‘filthy’ and that he sees it has his personal and professional responsibility to quash the entire sector out of existence.

Quoting directly from the Tanach (Hebrew bible and the writings of the Talmudic scholars), Professor Hauser asked the Attorney General for powers to extend his jurisdiction globally, and to ban any firm from marketing binary options from within Israel in any form, whether a service center for a disguised offshore entity or otherwise.

“The destroyers and layers of waste that go forth from among you (Isaiah 49:17)” he quoted in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) last week. In modern Hebrew, that phrase is used to refer to ‘enemies within’ who bring ruin upon the society that raised them.

Indeed, Professor Hauser takes this matter just as literally and as personally, believing that his parents were founding fathers of the State of Israel and he cannot bear watching the country that his family built have its fine reputation ruined by ne’erdowells who could not care less. (There are many others who echo his line of thinking – Ed). Now, with Prime Minster Netanyahu joining those who cast disdain on the damage done to private individuals and the genuine industry, a more definite end is nigh.

“The fraudulent binary options industry is an ugly phenomenon that harms innocent people and unfortunately fans the flames of negative perceptions of Israelis and Jews. We must do everything possible to eradicate this phenomenon” – Professor Shmuel Hauser, Chairman, Israel Securities Authority

Last month, FinanceFeeds succeeded in lobbying Southampton Football Club to the point where the club’s sponsorship by Banc de Binary, a company which continued to flout the law against ripping off customers in the United States (a practice which many binary options firms still engage in), landing it with an $11 million fine and restitution order from the CFTC and SEC. After our interaction with the club and research with sports sponsorship agencies and some help from The Times in London, Banc de Binary was removed as a sponsor.

TRADOLOGIC, one of the largest platform providers in the binary options business, was subject to a similar matter when one of its major shareholders was arrested for money laundering and fraud.

Other major firms in the sector include Banc de Binary, which was subject to an $11 million fine from the CFTC for illegally soliciting US customers despite having been in receipt of a cease and desist order prior to the charges issued against the firm in 2013.

Anyoption, one of the largest brands, is owned and operated by Shay Ben-Asulin, who was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission in America in 2011 for participating in pump-and-dump schemes and for engaging in a fraudulent scheme to conceal the sales of millions of shares of their companies, netting him and his 7 accomplices $33 million, yet he went on to found a large binary options brand after this, continuing to satisfy his thirst for ripping people off.

The net is closing in, and the hidden servers where transactions are processed are now being investigated by governments – Luxembourg being one of them – and also payment services providers that facilitate binary options payments or facilitate transactions for fraudulent online trading firms are now increasingly becoming the subject of sanctions, as has been the case for PacNet by the US Treasury, and WorldPay by the French government.