NFA Forex Dealer Dead Pool

[forex scholar]

Touring the Dead Pool Graveyard

Since starting up this thread many former forex firms are now pushing up the daisies, dead parrot style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6Lq771TVm4

Indeed, these firms have passed on. They have ceased to be. They have expired and gone to meet their maker. They’re stiff. Bereft of life they rest in peace. They have kicked the bucket and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible. These are ex-forex firms:

Rest in Peace
-The following firms are no longer functioning as independent registered forex dealers.

• United Global Markets (Died May 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Forward Forex (Died June 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• Worldwide Forex (Died June 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• Cal Financial Corporation (Died March 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Nations LLC (Died July 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• FX Option1 Inc (Died June 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• Trend Commodities (Died June 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Performance Capital (Died June 2007. Cause: Buyout)
• FiniFX (Died July 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• CFG Forex (Died February 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Tradex Swiss AG (Died August 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• Spencer Financial (Died June 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• One World Capital (Died November 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• ANTC (Died August 2007. Cause: Buyout)
• Royal Forex (Died August 2007. Cause: Buyout)
• Northfinance (Died May 2008. Cause: Buyout)
• VelocityFX (Died December 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Direct Forex (Died December 2007. Cause: Buyout)
• E-FX (Died November 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• Solid Gold (Died December 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• FXLQ (Died December 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• SNC Investments (Died December 2007. Cause: Undercapitalization)
• WestCap FX (Died April 2008. Cause: Autopsy not Complete)
• AleccohFX (Died February 2008. Cause: Busted for Fraud)
• Finex (Died sometime in 2007. Cause: Busted for Fraud)

That’s twenty five firms by my count that have been closed or bought out on the Scholar’s watch. Thousands of traders have lost millions of dollars as a result of the chaos in the forex industry the past year and a half. Don’t allow yourself to be the next victim. Be sure to trade with a well capitalized firm and make sure they are prepared for the coming capital requirement increase to $20 million.

[forex scholar]

While we await the President’s veto I thought I would pass along one of the funniest forex related websites I have seen in a while. It is called Caveman Forex.
http://www.cavemanforex.com/home.html

The troglodyte running this website claims to be selling a winning “formula” guaranteed to make traders rich. Says Caveman Forex, “Due to the nature of the Cavemanforex formula, the success rate of these trades ranges from 60% to 70%. This ultimately gives me a profit ranging from 200 to 500 pips, sometimes more.... EVERY WEEK!”

Uh huh.

And get this. He’s only selling this secret formula for $89! As Don Corleone once said to The Turk “Why do you come to me? Why do I deserve this generosity?”

I’ll tell you why, because it ain’t generosity. You’re more likely to earn money betting on Eight Belles to win the Triple Crown this year than you are trading the forex market based off signals given to you by the cast from the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But I give Caveman Forex points for showmanship that’s for sure!

[forex scholar]

President Bush will officially veto the farm bill today per Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush is expected to veto the "bloated" $280 billion farm bill on Wednesday, a White House spokeswoman said.
Spokeswoman Dana Perino said the five-year bill was "bad for American taxpayers." Farm leaders in Congress say they can override the veto and enact the five-year bill as law.

Congress may initiate an override vote as early as this evening. We are nearing the end game now.

[forex scholar]

So many scandals, so little time. Late last year Felix Homogratus the infamous “Forex Bastard” of forexpeacearmy.com fame got swept up in an international sting operation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security. (See Complaint Document: http://www.pipwizard.com/pdf/marriag...-complaint.pdf )

Apparently forex bastard was dating and harboring a Russian vixen (photo here: Pair arrested in green card marriage that resulted from Web ads - Los Angeles Times) who had participated in marital fraud. This Monday Yuliya Mikhailovna Kalinina started serving a four month “home detention” sentence and will likely face deportation according to the San Jose Mercury News: http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9113354

SoCal woman who posted online marriage ad sentenced
The Associated Press
Article Launched: 04/30/2008 08:46:28 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES—A Russian woman who was found guilty of marriage fraud for paying a man to get a green card has been sentenced to four months in prison.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Yuliya Mikhailovna Kalinina, who was also found guilty of one charge of aiding and abetting, was ordered Wednesday to serve four months home detention and begin her prison sentence on May 19.

Kalinina, who faced up to five years in federal prison, could be deported after she is released because she is a convicted felon.

Benjamin Adams, the man who responded to Kalinina's online ad offering prospective husbands up to $15,000 to marry her, was sentenced April 7 to two months in prison for marriage fraud and making a false statement.

Kalinina testified during her trial that she didn't know "green card marriages" were illegal.

It is one of the most bizarre stories I have covered to date. Ms. Kalinina put up an ad on Craig’s List stating she was willing to pay $300 a month and a total of $15,000 to marry someone to get that golden ticket to America. CNN ran a story on it at the time:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/12/07/green.card.ap/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Sure enough there was some down on his luck bloke out there foolish enough to take her up on her offer. That Wally Brain would be Benjamin Adams. Kalinina's live-in boyfriend, Dmitri Chavkerov, an Internet-ordained minister, wed the two defendants.

Who is Dmitri Chavkerov? According to EuroMoney Dmitri Chavkerov is none other than Forex Bastard:
http://www.euromoneyfix.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=1853868

Dmitri you magnificent bastard! Not only are you a forex bastard, but you’re an ordained minister too?! What a true Renaissance man…

Nice of you to also take Yuliya off Benjamin Adams’ hands and put her up in your swinging pad, where I assume she is now serving her four month “home detention” prison sentence? Now that’s an easy piece of prison time with built in conjugal visitation rights included!

So is this the end of the notorious forexpeacearmy? According to a thread at Elite Trader titled “Felix Sells Out” MB Trading has cut its ties to Forex Bastard and torn up their IB agreement with him: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=103056&perpage=6&pagenu mber=4

But Forex Bastard is nothing if not resilient. Over the years he has hosted a slew of forex related websites and changed his name more often than Prince:

Forexbastard.com
Forexpeacearmy.com
Kingofforexsignal.com
Forexfreedom.com

But it will be hard for the Bastard to re-invent himself in light of this story. Google Forex Bastard and Dmitri Chavkerov and you’ll find a bucketful of blogs designed to bring down the Bastard, most notably: http://forexbastards.blogspot.com/ which makes some hair raising allegations that imply that the Bastard is not just running his own little websites but also pulling the strings behind a whole host of actual forex dealers.

Such is the nefarious influence of Forex Bastard that he has spawned a whole series of paranoid blogs that insist he is some kind of one man Freemason Society (or Stonecutter Society if you prefer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdaRuTwWl9I).

If that isn’t enough to warn you off from forexpeacearmy there is this very insightful video by a trader who demonstrates how the reviews at forexpeacearmy are bogus and not worth the pixels they are printed on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWmyYDJn5P0

It’s a mad, mad, mad forex world we live in. Thank heavens all these guys have to get licenses in the next few months. This insanity has got to stop.

[forex scholar]

D’OH!!!

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Lawmakers scrambled Thursday to fix a clerical error that derailed an effort to override President Bush's veto of a $300 billion farm bill.
Congress may have to revote on a $300 billion farm bill due to what Democrats called a clerical error.

The House of Representatives voted 316-108 Wednesday to override the president's veto, but shortly after the vote, lawmakers learned that a "not particularly controversial" section of the bill was accidentally omitted from the version that Congress sent to the White House, said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland.

The discovery prompted concerns from Hoyer's Republican counterpart that the override vote was improper.

"What's happened here raises serious constitutional questions -- very serious," said Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "I don't see how we can proceed with the override as it occurred."

Hoyer suggested that the section left out of the original bill -- authorizing trade and food aid -- could be approved by both houses of Congress and sent back to Bush, "either to be signed by him or vetoed by him, and we would consider it in that context."

But late Wednesday, a Democratic leadership aide said the House likely will hold an entirely new vote on the complete farm bill, move it to the Senate for a quick vote and send it to the White House -- where Bush is likely to let it die without his signature during the Memorial Day recess.

Democrats said the matter stemmed from a clerical error. But Republicans pounced on what they called a "fiasco," which they said would require a temporary extension of the current farm bill.

[forex scholar]

The veto was overridden and the CFTC is now at work implementing the new law passed by Congress. CFTC has just issued a press release touting what the new law does:
http://www.cftc.gov/newsroom/generalpressreleases/2008/pr5501-08.html

• Enhances agency authority over off-exchange retail foreign currency fraud by:

1. Clarifying that the CFTC’s anti-fraud authority applies to certain retail off-exchange foreign currency transactions (also known as the “Zelener” fix)

2. Creating a new registration category for retail foreign exchange dealers and requiring registration for those who solicit orders, exercise discretionary trading authority, and operate commodity pools with respect to off-exchange retail foreign currency transactions

3. Imposing minimum capital requirements for futures commission merchants and retail foreign exchange dealers that act as counterparties in such transactions.

And so it begins. The following firms do not currently meet the upcoming capital requirement increase to $10 million which will take effect 120 days from today:

Advanced Markets $5,100,000
Bacera $5,500,000
Money Garden $6,600,000
Easy Forex $7,200,000
MB Trading $7,700,000
Hotspot $7,700,000
Forex Club $7,900,000
Friedberg Mercantile $8,000,000
CMC $8,300,000
Alpari $8,800,000
Ikon $8,800,000

[forex scholar]

One of the fastest growing markets for retail fx trading is in China. The only problem for forex dealers is that currency trading in China is illegal. The Chinese Government routinely rounds up underground forex dealers and introducing brokers but just as with the old prohibition laws the trading public seems to just ignore their communist masters and keep on drinking that moonshine.

But currency bootleggers beware: if you get caught you may wind up in a stank Chinese prison sewing sneakers together for Nike or stitching hula shirts together for Wal*Mart.

Such are the fates now of dozens of former introducing brokers for Northfinance and Forex.CH after a series of raids in mainland China.

Of course, no one should be surprised that Northfinance has once again gotten into legal trouble. They have long been an industry rogue and their recent purchase by FX Pro has done little to rein them in. But this does not bode well for Forex.CH, which is a Swiss based broker already reeling from the new banking laws in Switzerland that may put them out of business. It is going to be a lot harder for them to meet Swiss capital requirements now that their boys in China have been pinched:

Íâ¹ú¹«Ë¾Ë½¶ÒÍâ»ã ÍâÍø³´»ãÁ÷ʧ¼¸Ç§Íò-Íâ»ãƵµÀ-ºÍѶÍø
·¸×ïÍÅ»ïÀûÓÃÍøÂç·Ç·¨³´ÂôÍâ»ã30ÒÚÔª_ÐÂÎÅÖÐÐÄ_ÐÂÀËÍø

Since most people can’t read Chinese I’ll summarize below:

On May 12, Shanghai police arrested a Russian citizen, who was the chief representative of North Finance, in addition to personnel from Northfinance’s IB, marketing, operations and accounting departments. According to Northfinance’s Russian flunky, there were more than 40 IBs working for NorthFinance, and each IB had to bring in more than 20 accounts to maintain their IB status. NorthFinance took RMB as client deposits, and all the money went directly to the flunky’s personal account, over 20 million RMB is now sitting in his frozen account.

On May 22, Shenzhen police arrested 13 people, all of whom were referral agents for GFX Capital Markets. From 2004 to 2007, they introduced a total of 184 clients to GFX. Forex.CH rebated $40 USD for every transaction, and clients had to pay an extra 80-100 RMB per trade. According to the prosecutor, clients made money in the beginning, but they all lost in the end. The referral agents avoided detection all these years by masquerading as a software company selling FX market analysis.

As I said before, China doesn’t play around. If they’re lucky these agents will be sent to a prison factory to spray lead paint on cheap Hannah Montana dolls but if they’re unlucky, well… take a read through Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago and you’ll get the picture.

Now, knowing the manner that companies like GFX and Northfinance do business and knowing that they have been unregulated for many years why on earth would anyone open an account with such an outfit?

[Forex Troglodyte]

Originally Posted by forex scholar

While we await the President’s veto I thought I would pass along one of the funniest forex related websites I have seen in a while. It is called Caveman Forex.
http://www.cavemanforex.com/home.html

The troglodyte running this website claims to be selling a winning “formula” guaranteed to make traders rich. Says Caveman Forex, “Due to the nature of the Cavemanforex formula, the success rate of these trades ranges from 60% to 70%. This ultimately gives me a profit ranging from 200 to 500 pips, sometimes more.... EVERY WEEK!”

Uh huh.

And get this. He’s only selling this secret formula for $89! As Don Corleone once said to The Turk “Why do you come to me? Why do I deserve this generosity?”

I’ll tell you why, because it ain’t generosity. You’re more likely to earn money betting on Eight Belles to win the Triple Crown this year than you are trading the forex market based off signals given to you by the cast from the opening scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But I give Caveman Forex points for showmanship that’s for sure!

[forex scholar]

Forex Troggy feel free to post your signals here on this thread so that we can all judge your signals for ourselves!

[forex scholar]

Having a rough day trading? Well, things could always be worse. You could have an account at one of the bankrupt forex firms described below. Perhaps the worst thing about having an account locked up in bankruptcy is the uncertainty and the legalese that gets spit in your face by court ordered receivers, (although in the case of Aleccoh FX all you get is some ass clown appearing once a month on a bulletin board hiding behind a mug shot of George Soros.)

Here is the latest correspondence from the court appointed receiver at FXLQ:

Robb Evans & Associates LLC
Receiver of Forex Liquidity LLC

Notice to Customers and Creditors of Forex Liquidity LLC

May 28, 2008

The Receiver has communicated with many of you that it intended to file a motion this week with the United States District Court seeking approval of an interim distribution.

In the last few days certain unexpected events have taken place that will cause a delay in the Receiver’s motion. Those events involve creditor and other related issues which may or may not impact the ultimate distribution proposal to be made by the Receiver. The Receiver is not currently able to disclose the nature of what has transpired, but hopes to have these issues resolved very soon.

If these issues can be resolved, the Receiver should be in a position to make a distribution recommendation to the Court by mid-June.

There is a lot of hedging in those three paragraphs. A lot of “if’s, should’s, unexpected’s, may’s, and hope’s” tossed in, which makes it far more likely that the customers stuck at FXLQ aren’t going to get all of their money back.

Of course his Holiness, Aleccoh FX, can’t be bothered to communicate in such a professional manner. He continues to hide behind a .jpg of George Soros and in his latest bloviation to the masses states: http://www.forex-tsd.com/212268-post1815.html

Good Day All

I am sorry for the delay in briefing you all but please be sure that my lawyers and I are following through this matter daily and recently by the hour.

Here is a small brief :

After many tractations and stallings by the -----------.SA staff and by its president, all the funds of the privatly owned account of its president has been frozen.

The good thing is that unofficialy the aleccohfx account holder's funds are there.

I of course refused to drop the criminal charges against these scammers unless they return the funds to each and every investor to the last penny.

As it seems, they are sending emails to the account holders giving them the choice to either continue trading with them or withdraw their funds.

I couldn't emphasize enough to send an immediate withdrawal of your funds to this email because i do not trust these people a bit , and if you read the postings on this thread, you will know why.

Please report back to aleccoh@aleccohfx.com if you have received your funds in order to inform my lawyers and the judge in charge of the case.

I must remind you that eventhough they bankrupted aleccohfx and -------.SA, we made sure that our criminal case was against physical persons and not moral persons, in clear, we are prosecuting mr --- --- and not the company , and the judge accepted this prosecution and acted upon this by freezing mr ----- funds.

It seems that the justice is putting the heat on them as we speak , and this is why they are trying to get out of this mess they put themselves and aleccohfx investors into.

I hope this will bring an end to this story very soon and it is not another stalling technique by these crooks.

Goodspeed
__________________
Good Day

aleccoh

Such is life in the world of the undercapitalized. Let’s hope the new laws in the U.S. and Switzerland close the book on these all too common “bankruptcies.”