Its interesting that
tymen1 joked as he/she did about some brokerages being run by criminals. Although, Im sure it was posted in jest, here's a couple of snipets I stumbled upon whilst doing my due dilligence which are interesting in light of his/her posts.
In January 2006, the NFA did a follow up audit after FXCM was fined $110,000 for violation of
Rule C.R.2-36(b)(1) which is defined as "Cheat, defraud, deceive forex customers" . FCM in no way admitted or denied the charge, and made the settlement with the NFA. You can find the details here :
BASIC Case Summary
The follow on audit revealled that FXCM had not abided by the agreement which had the resolved the previous regulatory action. Thus the NFA initiated another complaint against FXCM, which is as yet unresolved (
I believe) for violation of
Rule C.R.2-36(b)(1) which is defined as "Cheat, defraud, deceive forex customers"
The audit also identified potential failings of "FXCM's anti-money laundering program (AML) "as evidenced by the high number of accounts FXCM opened for Nigerian nationals, without identifying those accounts as high risk for potential money laundering." [quote from
http://www.nfa.futures.org/basicnet/...px?seqnum=1023 ]
You can find the details here :
BASIC Case Summary
The particular concern about Forex companies opening accounts for Nigerian nationals is that Nigeria is the origin of a number of internet scams commonly called the "Nigerian 419 Scam" If you dont know what the Nigerian 419 scam check out the the following very entertainment link :
Ebola Monkey Man: Nigerian 419 Scam
disclaimer : I in no way qualified to say that fxcm is Cheating, defrauding, or deceiving forex customers, or that they ever have. However, our regulatory body the NFA have made complaints that they have.