This news just in from FXOpen’s Forum concerning the recent settlement between the CFTC and FXOpen.
FXOpen is pleased to announce that this issue is over and dealt with.
In January 2011, the United States Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed a civil law suit against FX Open Investments Inc. alleging that FXOpen conducted business in the United States without registering, in circumvention of the regulation requiring registration. FXOpen and CFTC subsequently agreed to settle the matter on mutually acceptable terms, and the terms of that settlement became effective as of January 5th 2012 via a consent order of the Illinois Federal Court.
FXOpen has entered into the consent order without either accepting or denying the allegations set forth by CFTC which are reflected in the “Findings of Fact” part of the consent order. Please note that, as part of the settlement terms reflected in the consent order, FXOpen has agreed to refrain from making any statements contradicting any findings of fact provided in the document and thus may not provide any further comments on the foregoing.
Additionally, FXOpen would like to clarify some aspects regarding the measures the Company has agreed to as part of the settlement as reflected in the consent order:
The payment of civil monetary penalty of USD 140’000 is a condition mutually agreed upon by the Company and CFTC and was not imposed as a result of a decision reached by the Court.
The funds that the company is required to return to the US customers are the funds held with the respective accounts at the time these accounts were closed as per the conditions of the settlement and not a “return of illegally obtained profits" or any similar measure as claimed by various third party commentators on the matter.
Prohibitions on conduct of business contained in the consent order are not permanent injunctions to do business in the US, but are in essence an agreement not to do business in the US without obtaining respective authorization in accordance with the US regulation. The Company is currently in the process of assessing the possibility of applying for such authorization in order to resume serving the Forex needs of US customers.
I hope this clears up any questions anyone may have about this case.