BULLETIN: (Updated 5:52 a.m. EDT April 8 U.S.A.) A “binary options” platform operating out of England allegedly plucked $82,742 from four Missouri investors, telling one of them that his money “had been stolen by former employees and could only be retrieved by paying a service fee and taxes to the companies’ supposed insurance company, Allianz Tiriac, located in Romania.”
The office of Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander has issued a cease-and-desist order that applies to SpotFN.com, Spot FN LLC, Spot CEO James Kingsley and “affiliated New York companies Binary Holdings and Binary Academics,” Kander’s office said.
Spot does not appear to be an MLM. But some MLM “programs” are pushing binary-options schemes.
Among the issues in Missouri is that the Spot and Binary entities “and Kingsley are not registered to offer investment advice or act as broker-dealers in the state of Missouri,” Kander’s office said.
“Email and online-based investment opportunities such as this are a common practice by scammers to lure investors,” Kander said. “If you or someone you know was approached via email with an investment opportunity — especially by a foreign-based company — contact my office before turning over your hard-earned money.”
According to a statement by Kander’s office, Spot told a story about “guaranteed” profits and used the Internet and telemarketers to line up business for binary options, “which are bets on whether an event will happen at a specific time.”
Prospects were told to “send their investment funds through a website via their credit card, and their funds would be invested either by a ‘robot trader’ or an ‘executive trader,’ with a higher fee. In some instances, investor credit cards were charged without the investor’s knowledge or authorization,” Kander’s office said.