I just want to put your attention that IC Markets did un-ethical and illegal practice on my account. The problem raised when I submitted the withdraw request and they canceled it when I asked they took 12-13 days to reply. I told them by myself that I already used third party debit/credit cards to fund my account already in the past. The deposit was made by my client’s I requested them to direct deposit into my IC Markets Account instead of sending money to Pakistan and then I will deposit back the money just to cut down financial cost.
They accepted first deposit in 2018 and also 2nd deposit in 2018 there was no problem and they didn’t raise any AML (Anti Money Laundering Policy), when the third deposit was made in February 2019 and I started making profit and asked for the withdraw they took almost 12-13 days to respond to questions and in the meantime they updated their front end of the website regarding AML policy.
I discussed with their Support, Accounts and Compliance team over the phone and everyone started yelling “Third Party deposits are against our AML policy” I asked the question where was your AML policy when I deposited first and 2nd time and that money was lost?
To cut the long story short, I already submitted my complaint to ASIC and FCA and now I believe the truth will prevail and I will get my hard earned money back.
Now maybe you ask why I made third deposits? I am a freelance virtual assistant and I am working in this industry from the last 19 years that’s why my clients trust on myself and they deposited the money into my IC Markets account.
In my humble opinion, since the money was deposited contrary to the firm’s T&C, it is very unlikely you will receive any trading profits accrued through use of this account.
In addition, since the money originally deposited was the property of third party or parties, and not you yourself, it would be very odd and potentially illegal for IC to return it to you. You have admitted after all, it was not your money. The deposited cash remains the property of the third parties and IC should send it to them.
As for illegal tactics, don’t you understand that you are the one who, on the face of it, induced IC towards commission of money laundering?
I thought it is an accident, My friend also face such as this type problem in last June 2018. If you can, you may avoid them that’s will may be better. Any way where’s fro you trading with them?
I provided all of the deposit proofs, money laundering definition is entirely different. If someone is trying to launder money why he/she provide proof of the payments? If you again read my post they accepted first deposit in 2018 so the entire team including their bank/liquidity provider was in the hibernation phase?
Its not your money. You have provided them with evidence its not your money. No company is going to give you someone else’s money. You’re never going to get your hands on it again.
Best you can hope for is to help by arranging to have the money transferred directly back to the owners (assuming they can prove its theirs). If IC don’t return it to people who can prove they are the rightful owners, then the company has a legal problem. But that’s between them and the owners of the money and the regulators. Nothing to do with you.
Have you taken any legal advice? I think you should.
Yes, but I wonder, since it was a third-party deposit, how did they allowed this money to be deposited in @CreativeT’s account? As per this AML policy, brokers cannot fund clients’ accounts with third-party deposits. Something here doesn’t sound right. They should have never approved this deposit since it hasn’t been made by the client himself.
I saw this a few days ago - a thread on reddit where a trader provides evidence that IC Markets removed his stop loss, resulting in thousands of dollars lost while he slept
Another person in that same thread claims that ICM has done the same to him multiple times.
If they keep doing things like this, I’d look for a different broker.
He says himself he thought it was down to a tech glitch. If it was, they should re-instate his capital. Still, the conclusion is the same - move the account without delay.
Australian Financial Regulators are obviously not comfortable with Pakistan financial transactions. I have a small import business I run alongside my trading. Both Western Union and my Bank require, let’s say more than the usual information for any funds being sent to Pakistan… Money laundering along with funding of terrorist activities would be high on the list of signals for the Australian Government.
IC Markets is one of my main Brokers I have used since I began trading Forex and I would have to agree that there has definitely been a noticeable change in trade “characteristics” since ESMA changed its rules in Europe.
Maybe the influx and expansion of its customer base coming in from Europe due to the leverage restraints, maybe they think they can play hard and fast with more capital… who knows… It used to be my most profitable Broker by quite some margin, unfortunately that is no longer the case.
As I have pointed out a few times in the past… there was an article I read a few years back that ICM (Aust.) had a connection with Toro FX… who do not have a squeaky clean rap sheet.
Can you discuss some of the reasons why it has become less profitable from a margin point of view (regarding the broker, not your own trading) - like what in your opinion do you think has changed? I think this would be useful to understand as I’m sure a lot of brokers are going to go through the same process as the regulations and rules only ever become tighter around client margin and trading constraints.
Asia | Most Brokerages setting up in Australia are taking aim at the Asian Markets… it’s a prospective pot of gold to them… Asians are the most prolific gamblers… even in the Australian Casinos… So it’s a market waiting to happen, a Tsunami of players ready to take the field… the FX Markets.
95% of Forex Job ads are aimed at Mandarin, Malaysian or Indonesian speaking client managers. With over 2 Billion people in the region, it is home to some of the wealthiest and the poorest people on the planet, Google how many Millionaires per day are being made in China alone…
Most Asian countries struggle with corrupt financial sectors (Google James Packer & Asian Casinos) so no Broker in their right mind will set up in any of these countries for fear of being cut into by the despot Governments of the day… So it is sound corporate sense to base in Australia (or New Zealand) outside and safe of corruption, kickbacks and the Jurisdiction of possibly millions of your clientele.
Jurisdiction…
Australia | Our population is around 25 million (less than some Euro cities)… of which very few are interested in financial Markets… IC are regulated by ASIC in Australia, so were compelled to “play nice” while a large percentage of their clientele was based within the Australian borders… It’s easier for an Aust. citizen to get ASIC to act should there be any “standout” issues with FX Brokers based in Australia.
As has been proven with Euro Brokers… it’s a lot harder to get any action for misdemeanors if your broker is outside your countries (say U.K.) jurisdiction… the FCA couldn’t care less if you lost cash to a Cypriot or say Russian based broker…
Same applies here in Aust. If a Euro trader tries to complain about an irregular trade or delay in withdrawal of funds etc… ASIC wouldn’t entertain a european citizen’s complaints…
What are you going to do? Jump on a plane and come and bang on the Brokers door…
Not very likely and they know it… It’s a jurisdictional issue. Same would apply to US based brokers…
when money is going in nobody is talking about policy
but when money is about to go out they keep searching for loop wholes
i think his account made the profit
and the owner of the account should take his or her hard earned money
otherwise they should not have accepted the deposit nor the use of the money for trading
but most likely they assumed he will most likely lose so just let us not raise the policy issue and especially let us not stop the use of the money
in my pov he should get his profit and not the money the third party deposited
Its not his profit because it wasn’t his money. The firm might say there was technically no profit because this was a type of account created with a type of deposit they do not allow. But the deposited funds should be returned to the rightful owners, which means whoever CreativeT got them from. If they don’t, these people should take the firm to court because its their money.
CreativeT cannot take them to court because the firm have done him no harm as he has not lost any of his own personal money.
However, if the account made a loss, the firm should return as much as they can to the rightful owners. If these people are still left short of money, they should take CreativeT to court as he was the one who lost their money.
the firm allowed the deposit
the firm allowed the deposit to be used in trading
most likely they thought he will lose it
but unfortunately for them he did not lose and made profit
it is just unethical
Ethics are irrelevant here, its just they made a mistake. That’s because they are cr@p at their job. They accepted money which they should not have. Obviously they make a better job of checking when they’re about to give money out than when they’re about to get to get it in. And that’s when they found the error.
But having found the error, do you think they are going to break the AML laws paying the profit to this guy? That would be illegal. Not to mention the possibility that maybe these third parties don’t know what he did with their money, so maybe, from a lawyer’s point of view, he was a con-man before he even deposited the money with ICM, so they would become parties to another type of fraud.
A reputable firm will now seek out the third parties and return the deposited cash to them. No profits I’m sorry to say, but they should be just happy to get their money back.
Of course, a reputable firm would have checked the deposit details better but that’s life. Maybe the regulator will send them a stiff warning letter for not checking the deposit, but that’s about the end of it I’m sure.
I cant speak for Australia, but in the UK if a body (bank, broker, law firm, etc) believe funds a client wishes to send to be from a source the client cannot prove to be lawful, then they refuse to accept them.
However, if the funds are deposited before doubts are raised and the client then cannot verify the source, the bank/broker/law firm etc, cannot return them and must instead inform the authorities who will carry out their own investigations before deciding whether the funds should be returned or confiscated. Their investigations may also form a part of any future prosecutions against the client.
The broker in this case (at least in the UK) has to abide by the law or risk prosecution himself.
Exactly…they should have never accepted this deposit. Obviously, when money comes in, no one cares. Most probably, they found out this mistake when he made a withdrawal request but I still think that they do not have the right to withhold the money. Or, as per their rules, now that cannot pay it out…a very unfortunate paradox. In any case, they should be punished for approving this deposit as it’s their job to monitor clients’ deposits and withdrawals and take the relevant actions if some of the rules are breached.