Brokers in Cyprus?

Dear friends, I was a dormant introducing broker, since years I was focused on proprietary trading, perhaps almost private, then as you all, a day watching the market maker spreads go so low to 0.8 pips on Eur/usd and not offering to any customers MT4 and losing them one by one, I decided ok to contact FXpro and sign an agreement with them.
I was in UK at that time, and I hadn't so much time, however I had a pleasant phone conversation with one director, a cypriot, Stravos, and then after that I decided that a day I could sign with them and introduce some of my customers willing to trade with a MM and aware of the risk to do so, but when you know and accept, everything is ok.

The point is, that they, for over 1 year, sent me an email periodically to push me to sign and bring some customers, they was polite and nice.. in email, so at some point, when a customer asked me many times to give him MT4, I signed the agreement just for him, a friend perhaps, and a customer since 8 years.

He lost 7.000 eur. But it's not this the point, the broker sent me a 2 lines email and letter saying that we stopped to act in good faith as per their article in the agreement they want to terminate the agreement and do not pay me any commission.
I was in touched even in skyper with the IB desk... any problem at all... never! Just a surprise.

Those commissions are a small amount around 2.000 usd, but what about if the same will be done to 100 IB's? and what about if me, or another with even bigger amount (very easily for an IB arrive to 100.000USD/year) could have or has or had some cheat?

I never seen somethng like this in 8 years of experience, I know I could exepect this from forex, but not from FXPRO.
Of course, in that time I was wathching their banners everywhere... bying traffic everywhere and everywhere again!
F1, rally, soccer teams, Bloolmber, CNBC, Financial times and so on!

I was doing the creps with Nutella, I go in a recipe website and ! FXPRO ads.
Mad.

However, I wrote politely to the IB desk, and they refused to pay me the commissions stating that I did not qualify. I said, what? they explained bla bla, then they sent me a letter giving me 2 months to show that I was in good faith (for what? they never explained what was for them bad faith... was that I haven't sent to them 100 customers per month..).

At that point i was very touched but such ignorance about finance that I said ok terminate the agreement right now and pay me the commissions because what I've heard is too much.
I was fine for them for 2 years, then they terminate me the agreement just when my customer refused to put other money in MT4, and then they give me 2 months to do not justify their mistakes in terminate the agreement without justifications.

So as I said, they terminate the agreement, of course without telling me and without writing me, just they did, disabled the login as IB and so on.

I wrote to them after some day and they said to me what I wrote before. All disabled. I Said to them ok, you are obligated to pay me the commissions due, they said not we are not, the matter is closed.

I wrote to them several times, to compliance etc, asking them to show me in the contract where is written that they do not owe me that commissions, and the total silence.

I tried to contact via phone, 2/3 times I got refused and was told me the compliance offer was in break/lunch.
I asked to contact me via phone many times, they never did.

I asked to forward to directors/CEO my complaints, never done, nor possible to contact them.

Than all this was suspicious to me.
So I did the boring job to do I never want to do, google and look news about the scam. And I found.

I contacted around 100+ brokers, and forums ownwers, and I got some feedback. Especially from Nicosia/Limassol based professionals that knows what is going here in Cyprus!

What is going?
That this broker is acting as a bad mafia guy. There is the good mafia guy that is respectfull of people and the bad one that is the worse has any respect of the people.

These people for what I read in forums, is protected or backed from Cysec, the security commissions, I received emails stating that the board of Fxpro was/is friend of the ex vice chairmain of the Cysec and he was on secret payrol of fxpro and so on.

Now, if somebody complain to fxpro compliance officer and he closes the door in your face and do not take care of a complaint, do not pay the commissions (do not respect the contract or simply a cheat), and we complain to Cysec and they do not answer for 90 days what should we thing?

Should we thing that what we find around the web is true and here in Cyprus there is the biggest scam and scandal about the forex?

Here brokers are like mushrooms, seem an island open to each king of cheats in forex and background of the founders of such forex firm, this is one of the email I received 2 days ago:

"Cysec's possibly corrupted VChairman:
Mr. Akis Hatzipieris Ex Vice Chairman of Cysec.
Always on holiday leave during his time at Cysec.
Friends with Panagiotis Xydas, a senior manager in FXPRO. They were appearing socially in Cyprus (eat drink have fun),
and Xydas confirms their friendship. Rumors that Akis is on secret FXPRO payroll. Apparently there was no Cysec inspection to FXPRO for very long time if at all.

Crown Forex Scandal:
Check this old scandal out where everybody is trying to keep their mouth shut.
http://www.forexpeacearmy.com/public...www.fxpulp.com
Date of Post: 2010-11-29"


I'm disgusted not so much for the forex scams and regulators of EU/USA etc not stopping this phenomen of illegal licenses that have nothing to do with finance but more to the betting or even lower lever because we are speaking of illegality and criminal acts when such plug ins to cheat are used with the intent to cheat the customer and not doing at all the market maker job, I'm disgusted because the regulator do not answer!!! and back them!


Back them.


Why?
Fxpro for example for what I remembe just few months ago, was a normal firm in my view. Like others, may be more good of other in their aggressivity and growth, so may be they found a good webdesigner, some good programmer to developp apps, money to spend in google adwords, papers, some good contact to start collaborations, paid, with tvs and so on.
Was normal, a classic market maker with a lot of complaints as others.


BUT, when you read, in their site, news day by day, where they get awards from the president of Cyprus... then you see the board tha slowly change and they bring into people that have nothing to do with forex... and have the hands on the politics of Cyprus, and are "friends of friends" may be again of the regulators and so on..
here you see a "lobby" and a dangerous one.


Why? I don't want to be rude with Cypriots, but coming me, from a mafia country, and much more developped, I can see very well in this story



1. how in mafia style is working FXPRO.com with his found, russian, showing his nice gold watch on a lot of site I hope you will now to goole and see...


2. the cypriot politicians are not of course young people using facebook and google, and even not good at all in trading or to undestand what the forex is... and which sophisticated scam industry is behind, are common people and much less preparate to such sophisticated plans to use such names, such CV's to arrive an a goal to legitimate their leadership that is not other than a SAND castle because is based on the cheats done to some WEAK customer.



Weak customers lose today 500, tomorro 50.000 and so on.
Without those cheats, the business was bankrupt. And of course not only for fxpro.


The goal of Fxpro now, is doing the things bigger and bigger, but here the russian dream and cypriot "lobby" behind too will crash.

They are tring to make an IPO to raise the money and to give the hot potato that in these day is VERY HOT, to the pur investors should buy the shares on the London Stock Exchange.

But I hope we will be able to stop this before, because we need to organize and sue them for all the illecits done against us, and we have the proos because a part my case, I've read and I've also some dozen of cases in my hands where I can see detailed proofs of the cheats.


Cyprus is really a nice island, and really nice people,
but the one are around FXPRO are really bad one and they want to wast the reputation of a whole country.
They do not care to put the face of the president of the republic to give an award to them for the job their are doing... poor president he even don't know what is doing and with who is dealing, and probabily he never traded forex in his life and he limited to change some banconote in some airport at a spread of 10% bid/ask, as this is common in EU airports and it's another scam and thread... (:-)))


Sorry for the long post but was due...


I hope to find people like me cheated, and in particular IBs!!! to me is really new that they cheat even IB's, if they cheat IBs and experienced with a background in real finance, non in market makership of videogames, I can't imagine what and how they can cheat the customers that are their counterpart and real enemy to suck the blood!


Hope to have a lot of feedbacks and if somebody want to join with me in a group that want to sue them... we can get help and support in Limassol and Nicosia by accountants that know good lawyers against this lobby and that knows even the minister of finance, so we can win if we want and we can stop the arrogance of not only a broker but a security commissions that is violating with its silence the rights of investors and who deals with firms they are regulating.

Also we need help to inform EU regulators of what is happening and to make complaints to OldMutual and other institutions where some of those "non executive" directors are coming from in this board bios.


Sincerely.

Ah, I forgot to say, that in after 85 days waiting for my complaint at Cysec, and to have solicited 6 times to answer to my very simple case since I didn't need to show logs for the cheats but just a contract written very clearly, the Cysec sent to me a letter for a domain name I've that is dormant with a logo and 2 addresses of my companies always dormant perhaps (they are very unlucky) asking me if I was licenced somewhere and to put a disclaimer in my website stating that the LTD company written in the website is NOT licensed by the Cysec.
As I received I sent to them a letter via email and fax as they did to me, asking first of all where they was reading that I was offering financial services in my website since was a home page with few text, any link, any word that could let even imagine that the website was offering some financial service, and/or regulated that make the point, and the law they refer too because I needed this clarification because now my website was looking really as financial offering financial services... something I do not want to do because i want to keep for now private and without that statement!!!

They gave me 2 days to answer! I answered them in 1 hour.
I praied them to answer me kindly what's their problem in 2 business days, of course I'm waiting since 5!!!

I'm going in person in few days there, since I live at 100 meters from Cysec and I will keep you updated...

This is what is happening.. and I suspect will come more and more and I think the battle will be lost now not only by the broker but even from the regulator because here there are all the premises of violation of the law about how the jobs is performed by the regulator clearly not protecting at all who make complaints and letting the time pass... so their protected firms get IPO and money and run away, then the investors will buy the stocks at 10 pounds and will sell at 1, if not in bankrupt, REFCO stocks can give a lesson, when you cheat the stocks can banrupt in 3 days!

So next step is to inform FSA, the federation of securities commissions, the London Stock exchange, and the police of what is happening.

In fact, in few days, based on how they will answer me in real, I will decide if to do a personal denunce to the police about what is happening because this is of public interest.

Ah, and finally, a part the support of some consultant/lawyer I got a contact of a good journalist interested to write a story for an online paper and then should get if we succeed in TV and in an UK newspaper where I've some contact!

now it's almost all if I didn't forgot something.


P.S.

Salve, parlo italiano, offro supporto a tutti quelli che hanno avuto problema simile e che devono agire per difendere i propri diritti presso le autorita' Cysec o ad altri ordini competenti. Contattatemi in Italiano se servisse.

- transalation

Hi, I speak italian, I offer support in Italian to who had same problem and need to act with a complaints to defend own rights to the Cysec or other competent authorities. Contact me in italian if it can help (for who poor do not speak english and get double frustrated because cannot defend easily in those cheats).

I have an account with fxpro

Hi,

I'm really sad of what is going in Cyprus.. the island do not reserve a scandal like this, forex broker like mushrooms and all in competitions to rob people with virtual plug ins, unfortunately you are right, the silence of Cysec make them complicits.

about fxpro I found this that can be quite scaring for the future:

They got a lot of clients from their sponsorship deals but they were just a front to float their company on the London AIM stock exchange.
As this failed miserably the sponsorship deals will now go.
They will soon announce that they are pulling the plug on the Aston Villa FC sponsorship deal. They fired 30% of their employees before Christmas and one of the top managers quitted. They closed their office in Greece.

I just would like to see their financials.. and the auditor notes because only this can make the difference, I've read somewhere that IPO and numbers show can be again just a "front" but the company can go in crisis soon, and to read that do not pay to an IB it's already quite scaring,

I will try to look something, I've heard from my friends in Limassol that something is moving and there is several people making compaints to Cysec, I've heard of one guy from Canada that lost about 50.000$ and is asking to cancell all the transactions done with fxpro and have back the initial deposits seen that they do not hedge at all in the real market and they use virtual plug ins I think he is right to ask the full refund of the money deposited he has not traded as agreed and were used techniques that are defined somewhere like a criminal activity or simply cheats, but do not change the sense...

let's see if something move in Cysec or politicians to stop this scam business! It's really boring and have nothing to do with finance this business is not real, it's another world.
It's really incredible that FXPRO never had a fine with so much business and customers reporting cheats, spread manipulation, delayes, virtual plugins etc!!!!

take a look what happen in end of 2010 in the US:

Forex brokers caught and fined for MetaTrader scam
It was no secret that many forex brokers that offer the MetaTrader platform also use Boston Technologies’ sneaky virtual dealer plugin-in to swing any slippage in their favor. This discovery was made and exposed on a few forex forums a couple years ago, so it was a surprise that it took the NFA this long to act on the information.
Gain Capital, a.k.a forex.com, and IKON Global Market, have both been fined for a relatively small amount of money for their use of this software that helped them get the better of their traders.
Gain Capital was fined for a measly $459000 by the NFA for their part, while IKON Global Market was fined for even less – $320000!
Summary of Gain Capital’s fine:
COMPLAINT:
On June 30, 2010, NFA issued a Complaint against Gain and Stevens that cited Gain for engaging in margin and liquidation practices that had a detrimental impact on certain of Gain’s customers on certain slipped trades, failing to maintain records for certain unfilled orders that were placed on the MetaTrader trading platform prior to May 2009, failing to adequately review the activities and promotional material of Gain’s unregulated solicitors, failing to respond promptly to certain inquiries and requests made by NFA during NFA’s audit of Gain and, together with Stevens, failing to supervise the firm’s operations.
DECISION:
On October 27, 2010, NFA’s BCC issued a Decision accepting an Offer of Settlement submitted by Gain and Stevens, in which Gain and Stevens neither admitted nor denied the allegations of the Complaint and agreed to settle the case on the following terms: Gain agreed to refund to customers the amount of negative slippage they experienced on the trades that were placed in their accounts between May 1 and July 31, 2009 and which were attributable to the Virtual Dealer Plug-in that Gain used on its institutional and retail servers, Gain agreed to refund to customers the losses they incurred as a result of Gain’s practice of adjusting leverage and margin requirements on Fridays, as alleged in Count I of the Complaint; Gain agreed to pay $459,000 to NFA as a monetary sanction; Gain agreed that in the future any and all slippage parameters that Gain uses in determining whether a customer’s order will be executed or re-quoted, shall be symmetrical in nature and neither advantageous nor disadvantageous to the customer or to Gain; and Gain agreed not to reinstate its practice of adjusting leverage and margin requirements on Fridays, as described in Count I of the Complaint, which it has discontinued. The Decision made no findings with respect to Count V of the Complaint charging failure to supervise.


bye Riccos

thank you for your post!!!

do you know the name of the director/manager that left fxpro? could be interesting to contact him and ask something about...

or some of the 30% workeforce now unemployed... may be they should know something about the company to tell...

thanks for your post!
And I am sorry to read your negative experience with FXPRO. Tha'ts too bad.

Try FxDD, they got the fastest response on MT4 and I have no problems with them for about 3 years. But I belive FxPro is more capitalized. Recently there where some rumors about FxPro that they do not allow to trade some robots like megadroid and other scalpers. This is very likely becasue I have a lot of requotes with them. Also megadroid society found some ways how to beat it...

I'm an IB scammed, not a trader/investor scammed, so I don't need to find another broker, I just want my rights respected, commissions paid and Cysec regulating the companies that are licensed by them.

For now I try to collect bad experiences of who as IB or investor was cheated... and want to proceed against them if the regulator remain in silence and says that it's legal to scam even IBs as in my case, even if are just few cases, 2000 usd here, 5000 there, multply 100, 200, 500 times and are millions.

I was interested in becoming an IB for FxPro once. After I learned about it from their documents and contact them, I came to conclusion that their IB system was not good enough for my taste because they don't pay any commission to an IB unless it has given a required number of clients in a period of time. I also felt that their concept of IB program is quite bitchy, meaning you be their IB = you be their bitch. That's my technical term to say that being their IB is like being their employee who is lower than them in position, not equal partner. I wasn't OK with those so I didn't try to become their IB.

I've been trading with FxPro for more than a year now and have good experience with it. Once I had a unique problem and the support/management gave quite a touching help. They think client is king and I'm OK with that ;-)

My suggestion: If you're not happy working as IB with FxPro then withdraw yourself from it. If you keep pushing against that matter, the stress could kill you or make your life miserable (either you got your money you claim or not). How about letting it go and do work with those whom you have good experience with? =)

I don't understand your point.

The point is that they are scammers and there are proofs of clients scammed with the use of plug-ins that are illegal and IBs scammer with commissions unpaid.
We do not have the option to "withdraw" us, we were scammed... we are already out and finished with them. We don't work a second time with such bad people.

I just hope that this will help som new IB to be very carefull because they are going to waste their time.

Just days ago I had one very big italian introducing broker that was not paid "millions of commissions", yes "millions" and now is going to do an own brokerage license (I don't know more details about this, and this case I don't know with which FX broker is happened, I will know in the future).

good night.

By the way, let's hope in the "tobin tax" will hit a day even the forex, so we clean the market from this mafia. 0,05% per transaction or even just 0,01% will kill everything. Seen that the forex is the most advertised product in all the web... and we know "why".

Some technical advisor of EU governments is making a proposal about this to regulate the OTC transaction, this business, and to apply tobin tax to OTC/FX transaction of course, so will hit at least all the EU forex licenses, then we will see... more details in late september, still early.

Already the wholesale brokers said they will move offices to avoid this tax if implemented and more than likely retail brokers will do the same.
Asia are no doubt saying bring it on..
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/busi...cap.6822700.jp

My point of suggestion is instead of blaming your past partner (FxPro), blame yourself for the mistake of working with the wrong partner then find peace within yourself and move on. You can take the partner down but it won't fix your mistake in the first place, which is working with the bad guys.

That strong feeling of injustice, if you do things based on it, you won't like what it brings. The tone of your words are the color of your future ;-)

But it's just a suggestion. You can do whatever you like =)