BRI Ferrier, the administrator of doomed retail forex broker, Union Standard International Group Pty Ltd, published an update of its proceedings on Tuesday, revealing that it has received approximately AU$357 million in creditors claims to date, and the amount is likely to increase. Out of the total, almost AU$349 million in claims came from trust creditors.
However, the odd part is only around AU$8 million in funds are currently available with a trust in favor of the trust creditors.
“Whilst a formal adjudication of the claims has not been conducted, there is obviously a substantial shortfall for creditors based on funds to hand and real questions to be answered as to where client funds (in particular investor clients) have gone,” the administrator stated.
“As there are insufficient funds available to pay a meaningful dividend to trust creditors, we are moving towards the recovery phase of the matter.”
Offshore Assets
Additionally, BRI Ferrier pointed out that a substantial portion of the bankrupt broker’s assets are located offshore and are not made available for the liquidation process. Though it is investigating funds held with the broker’s money processors, the focus is on the assets available in Australia.
According to the financial statements, the doomed broker did not correctly account for the transactions with the Investor clients and dramatically overstated its profits. Thus, it incorrectly paid AU$6 million to the Aussie tax authorities in company taxes between the financial year 2017 and 2020.
The administrator has already recovered the overpaid taxes along with some interest.
“There have been limited further recoveries from the funds held with money processors located offshore and loans with related entities. We are continuing to investigate these assets, where those funds may ultimately be pursued as claims against the parties involved,” the administrator added.
The troubles of USGFX started in mid-2020 when the company entered into voluntary administration. This resulted in the cancellation of its Aussie license and ultimately the liquidation of the company.
However, the broker remained operational in the overseas markets and moved its headquarters from Australia to the United Kingdom. Last year, it also underwent a rebranding effort to leave the tainted brand behind.
