The Austrian crypto exchange BitPanda's recent announcement of a strategic partnership with AC Milan, one of Europe's most iconic football clubs, marks yet another instance of a cryptocurrency platform venturing into the world of sports sponsorship. While such high-profile partnerships may lend credibility and visibility to the crypto platform, they also raise critical questions about the underlying motives and the potential risks for investors.
Giambrone & Partners, a law firm with a strong track record in financial fraud litigation, is currently involved in a group litigation against Rodeler Ltd, a CySEC-regulated investment firm trading as 24Option. Allegedly, Rodeler violated numerous regulations, pressuring inexperienced investors into risky trades later identified as fraudulent. Consequently, the FCA prohibited 24Option from conducting regulated or marketing activities in the UK.
German law enforcement agents in Cologne have been investigating boiler room operator Rodeler DE GmbH, which operated CySEC-regulated broker 24option, since at least 2018. In this regard, law enforcement actions had already taken place in Israel in August 2021. Among other things, Israeli law enforcement agents raided offices of PandaTS and seized extensive data. On December 21, 2021, law enforcement announced that two former managers of the German boiler room were arrested.
Cyprus Investment Firms (CIF) regulated by CySEC are a problem for the security of the European financial markets. The CySEC CIFs work with illegal offshore mutations, fraudulent marketing campaigns, and target consumers and retail investors in the EU. Now the UK watchdog FCA has banned CySEC-regulated Finteractive Ltd d/b/a FXVC from UK clients. After Brexit, FXVC was allowed to operate under the Temporary Permission Regime (TPR) with the CySEC license in the UK.
FinTelegram already reported in detail a few weeks ago about the voluntary renouncement of its CySEC CIF license 207/13 and thus the withdrawal of the Cypriot Rodeler Ltd and its forex broker brand 24option. The pioneer among the EU forex brokers had paid tribute to the problems with the market situation and the regulators and voluntarily withdrew the CySEC license.
FinTelegram has reported on 21 July 2020 that Rodeler Ltd is voluntarily renouncing its CySEC license. Consequently, 24option, the trading style of the broker will also be terminated. On the website of 24option (www.24option.com) customers are informed that the operation will be closed as of August 20, 2020, the "Termination Date." The CySEC announcement states that this license renouncement has already been decided as of July 6, 2020.
On June 1, 2020, the FCA suspended some investment companies regulated by CySEC for their unfair sales practices. These firms allegedly used unauthorized celebrity endorsements on social media as part of their marketing. One of these investment firms was Rodeler Ltd and its brand 24option. Just a few hours later, CySEC also temporarily suspended Rodeler Ltd and ordered them to take necessary actions in order to comply with regulatory provisions within one month. R.I.P Rodeler and 24option.
For several weeks now, the Forex and CFD brokers Rodeler and F1Markets regulated by the Cypriot regulator CySEC have been keeping us busy. More and more whistleblowers are reporting irregularities and worrying details of their business practices. In December 2019, the Italian regulator CONSOB has already banned the luge athletes and their brands from Italy and thus revoked the EU Licence Passporting. Recently the UK FCA has also taken this step for luge, F1Markets, Hoch Capital, and Magnum FX (Cyprus). This forced CySEC to take measures and to order a temporary suspension.