The latest in forex fraud news: 23rd September

Binary options operative sent to prison in US

A woman who was involved in a scam binary options project has reportedly been sent to jail for over a year in the US.

Liora Welles has been given a prison sentence of 14 months due to her involvement in the Yukom Communications scams.

The scams, which had links to both the US and Israel and involved the offering of notorious binary options, were believed to have defrauded people out of $145m.

It is understood that Welles was herself responsible for scamming investors out of $2.2m of the total overall figure.

She had pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud when she was first apprehended.

Her plea came in December 2018.

The official information about the sentence was not made available right away, but a journalist who was present in court confirmed the details.

Welles is believed to have started to cry when the sentence was read out.

According to the Times of Israel, the district judge in the case – Theodore D. Chuang – pointed out some positives which worked in Welles’ favour.

He emphasised that she was a young professional at the time of starting her binary options career.

She was 23 years old.

Welles committed to a plea deal with prosecutors, and in July she took the witness stand against her former boss as a result of the deal.

He also supposedly acknowledged that she had helped prosecutors bring a case against someone further up the Yukom Communications food chain, Lee Elbaz.

However, it was not enough – and she “literally cheated senior citizens out of their savings”, the judge said.

Welles has also been told she must pay back the amounts which she personally was responsible for defrauding people of.

UK regulator warns against possible crypto scam

A regulator in the UK has warned people to avoid a potential crypto scam involving a copycat firm.

The Financial Conduct Authority said that First BTC FX, which offers cryptocurrency products to customers, was pretending to be a legitimate company with a license.

In fact, the company does not have the appropriate license.

A message from the FCA released last week suggests that the firm is in fact pretending to be First Global Limited, a legitimate organisation.

The copycat service has even borrowed some of the legal jargon from the legitimate organisation and offers what it describes as an “investment plan”.

In this plan, it claims that those who invest $100 could receive a return of $3,000 – a highly unlikely return on investment.

The FCA has told traders to be careful about the firm, and to exercise caution to avoid falling for the traps laid by copycat firms in general.

“Be aware that the scammers may give out other false details or mix these with some correct details of the registered firm”, it said.

Denise Jacksone

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