Russian c-bank detects over 140 illegal Forex brokers in first 9 months of 2019

The Central Bank of Russia has identified more than 140 illegal Forex brokers during the January-September period of 2019. The data was provided by Valery Lyakh, Head of the Bank of Russia’s Department for Countering Malpractice, in an interview with Russian information agency TASS.

The information about the majority of these entities has been sent to the police and the Financial Sector Computer Emergency Response Team in order to block the websites of the unauthorized firms.

Mr Lyakh noted that quite often such entities are registered overseas and transfer funds via foreign payment systems which complicates proving their activities are not legitimate. He also stressed the problem of the activities of pseudo training centers which lure clients for illicit online trading firms.

Let’s recall that, earlier in October, Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service published a warning about a number of foreign entities that illegally offer online trading services to Russian investors.

These entities, according to the regulator, abuse the insufficient knowledge of Russians about the securities market regulation, and solicit investments into activities such as Forex trading. Typically, the fraudsters create a facade that the deposit of investors are increasing thanks to gains and demand additional investments. Then, any attempt by the clients to withdraw their money, the balance suddenly becomes “zero” and the firm stops communicating with its clients.

According to the regulator, the companies that most often engage in such fraudulent activities with regard to the Russian market are: «Teletrade», «GRANDCAPITAL», «Delloy Trаde», «GLOBAL FX», «Kappabrokers», «GO CAPITALS FX», «KBCapitals»; «10 BROKERS»; «Swis Trade»; «BORN to TRADE», «Barclays Trade», «WerCrypto».

All of these companies are non-Russian entities and do not have the requisite licenses nor are they members of self-regulatory organizations.