Two individuals have been convicted and sentenced in Australia after pleading guilty to operating a binary options scam, according to a press release on the ASIC website.
From February to December 2015, Jana Jaros and Jackson Laurence Malcom Capper ran a fraudulent operation through the companies 'Astra Group Pty Ltd' and 'Old Cambridge Pty Ltd'. Using false information, they opened bank accounts and arranged for the companies to be incorporated. They then recruited and trained staff, directing them to cold-call members of the public. This model of operation is known as a boiler room scam.
The staff were selling financial packages, priced between 2,995 and 24,000 AUD, on the premise that experienced traders would manage opened trading accounts through an Isle of Man-registered company called 'Binary.com'. The scammers succeeded in making over half a million Australian dollars.
All this was done without the appropriate license from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian financial regulator.
On the 16th of December, the boiler room was raided by Queensland police in conjunction with ASIC, following which the operation was closed down.
Ms. Jaros and Mr. Capper both received jail time, suspended for three years after they posted bonds of 2000 and 5000 AUD respectively.
ASIC Deputy Chair Peter Kell said: "It is important that businesses seeking to avoid the protections provided by the financial services licensing regime are identified and investigated. Where these Obligations are found to have been ignored, ASIC will take action against those businesses and their operators."
