URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: CFTC Files Actions In Utah, Wyoming, New York And Illinois Against Domestic AND Offshore Firms In Second Phase Of Forex Sweep; 11 Companies Accused Of Illegally Soliciting U.S. Customers

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING:

UPDATED 8:14 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has gone to federal courts in four different states and simultaneously filed actions against 11 separate companies in the second phase of an enforcement sweep.

The firms, some of which conduct business offshore but allegedly use webhosting companies or other service-providers in the United States,  are accused of illegally targeting U.S. customers. In addition to today’s actions against 11 firms, 14 companies were charged in January, bringing the sweep total to 25.

Not all of the firms charged today used U.S.-based webhosts or service-providers or had a physical footprint in the United States, according to court records. At least one of the firms used the services of technology companies in Hong Kong and Canada, but all of the firms allegedly had the capacity to transact business with U.S. customers over the Internet.

“These actions reflect the CFTC’s continued resolve to make the forex market safer for investors by strictly enforcing the CFTC’s new forex regulations, which became effective in October 2010,” said David Meister, CFTC’s director of enforcement. “These new regulations require entities that wish to participate in the forex market to register with the CFTC and abide by regulations that are intended to protect the public from potentially fraudulent operations.”

Named defendants in today’s announced cases were:

• 1st Investment Management LLC, a Wyoming LLC.
• City Credit Capital (UK) Ltd., a United Kingdom company.
• Enfinium Pty Ltd., an Australian company.
• GBFX LLC, a New York LLC.
• Gold & Bennett LLC, a New York LLC.
• InterForex Inc., a British Virgin Islands company.
• Lucid Financial Inc., a Utah corporation.
• MF Financial Ltd., a Belize company with offices in New York City.
• O.C.M. Online Capital Markets Limited, a British Virgin Islands company.
• Trading Point of Financial Instruments Ltd., a Cyprus company.
• Windsor Brokers Ltd., a Cyprus company.

The agency said it “strongly urges the public to check whether a company is registered before investing funds. If a company is not registered, an investor should be wary of providing funds to that company.”

Registrations can be checked through the National Futures Association.

CFTC said today that it received assistance in its probe from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, the Utah Attorney General’s Office, the Utah Division of Securities and the U.K.  Financial Services Authority.

Each of of the firms was charged with violating provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act and other U.S. laws.

Here is a link to a CFTC page through which all of today’s complaints can be accessed. (Look on the right side of the page.)