As reported previously, the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FCIS) has imposed a record fine on the payment processor Payeer, totaling nearly €9.3 million, for significant breaches of international sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) regulations. This development corroborates FinTelegram's previous investigations into Payeer's Russian connections and its role in laundering money for scammers, further solidifying FinTelegram's reputation as a leading financial intelligence provider.
FinTelegram included the offshore broker NordFX in its REd Compliance list as it is operating without authorization. The broker uses a formerly CySEC-regulated entity acting as a payment agent. NordFX has informed us that the operator, NFX Capital VU Ltd, is no longer registered in Vanuatu but in St. Lucia. Traders conclude their client agreement with this unregulated offshore entity. The offshore broker "will not be held responsible for the accuracy of any information available on this site."
FinTelegram issued a warning against NordFX, a retail broker operating without authorization, back in early 2023. The broker, formerly regulated by CySEC, currently has no license known to us and is mainly active in Asia and South America, with the formerly CySEC-regulated entity acting as payment agent. Most recently, it has attracted attention due to the "Mega Super Lottery". We have added NordFX to our Red Compliance list.
We downgraded Russian-controlled offshore broker PocketOption to our black compliance list a few weeks ago in light of its numerous regulatory warnings. In recent months, PocketOption a/k/a PO Trade a/k/a PO has also addressed the Russian market, which is actually blocked by Western sanctions, through a network of new domains and websites and acquired retail traders. Here is an update on PocketOption.
RoboMarkets Ltd is a CySEC-regulated broker d/b/a RoboMarkets. RoboForex is the scheme's offshore broker operated by RoboForex Ltd, Belize, regulated by FSC Belize. RoboForex offers its financial services in EEA jurisdictions without regulatory permission. In addition, we found that the broker's website receives a lot of traffic from Russia. We have added RoboForex to our Red Compliance list. Read our latest review.
Several legal entities in different jurisdictions operate the XtreamForex scheme. On the one hand, there is Xtream Markets Ltd in Mauritius, registered as an investment dealer with the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius since 2023. The website also mentions Xtream Markets Ltd in the Marshall Islands as the website's owner. The client agreement also mentions Grand Investing Ltd. We have added XtreamForex to our Red Compliance List.
We have warned several times in recent months about the offshore broker Pocket Option a/k/a PocketOption or PO Trade, which was previously on our Red Compliance list. One of our readers brought to our attention that there are warnings against PocketOption from regulators worldwide. The offshore broker scheme is on the warning lists from the U.S. over Brazil and Europe to Malaysia. We have therefore downgraded PocketOption and placed it on our black compliance list.
As part of our systematic coverage and evaluation of offshore brokers, we also looked at AdroFX, a multi-asset broker registered in Vanuatu with the VFSC as a Financial Dealer. Like many other offshore brokers, AdroFX also addresses retail traders in the regulatory regimes of Europe, North America, and Asia without the required regulatory permission. Due to the lack of licenses and regulatory lapses, we have placed AdroFX on our Red Compliance List.
FXPrimus is multi-asset broker scheme which is already active since 2014. In the EEA, the scheme is registered with CySEC through Primus Global Ltd. Besides, an offshore mutation is also operated through Primus Markets Intl Ltd registered on Vanuato. In our review, we found some regulatory violations in the process and therefore placed FXPrimus on our Orange Compliance List. Here is our review and compliance check.
Most recently, the Belgian FSMA has placed the offshore broker scheme PocketOption a/k/a PO Trade on its blacklist. Over the past few years, several regulators have already warned against the unregulated broker. For a few weeks, PocketOption has been operated by Infiniti Trade LLC, a company registered in Costa Rica. Before that, it was Gembell Limited. We have added PocketOption to our Red Compliance list.
LegacyFX is one of the CySEC-regulated CIFs that works with offshore mutations to solicit European clients. Their offshore broker is AN All New Investments (VA) Ltd in Vanuatu. However, all card transactions of this offshore broker are processed by the CySEC-regulated entity. Durch Courts sentenced LegacyFX on May 17, 2023, to pay €303,000 to an investor, the Dutch lawyer Marius Hupkes reports on his website.
Vantage Prime Group LLC d/b/a VantageMarkets (VantageMarkets.co.uk) is regulated in the UK by the FCA. In addition, the VantageMarkets scheme runs offshore entities through which it performs onboarding of clients in the EEA region, in violation of the regulatory requirements of the FCA and ESMA regulators. Italian Consob has ordered the black-out of the VantageMarkets. Recently, Spanish CNMV issued another warning. We have assigned a Red Compliance rating to the Vantage Group.