Two Israeli companies operating binary options brokers have been charged by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission with illegally soliciting U.S. clients. Vault Options, Ltd. and Global Trader 365 have been operating in the country without being registered as exchanges as U.S. law mandates.
Both companies have been engaging in solicitation of clients from the U.S. which might prove to be a costly decision for the owners of the firms. According to the charges raised by the U.S. watchdog, the firms have solicited more than 50 U.S. clients to deposit over $1 million in direct violation with the existing financial regulatory framework.
Recently, one of the major binary brokers in the industry, Banc de Binary has been penalized by U.S. authorities over $11 million to settle charges against the company. Since the U.S. CFTC has identified off-Exchange binary options trading as a risk, all companies who have been operating in the country are under severe danger to end up on the list of the regulators as next in line.
Binary options trading in the U.S. may only be conducted on an exchange with several alternatives available - Cantor Exchange and Nadex are both operating under CFTC’s authority.
The Israeli binary options companies have solicited clients since at least October 2012 before their websites became inactive in recent weeks. The last available cached version of the website of Vault Options dates to the 7th of March, while globaltrader365.com has already been listed for sale.
According to the CFTC complaint, the binary options brokers have not only accepted deposits from U.S. clients, but have also grossly overestimated the prospects of winnings from trading binary options and assured their victims that their money is insured against losses. The firms also allegedly misappropriated the funds of their customers, as most depositors have parted with their savings within days or a couple of weeks.
In conducting this investigation, the U.S. regulator was assisted by the Israeli Securities Authority, the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC ), and the Ontario Securities Commission.
