FX week in review: USGFX accusations, ThinkMarkets-IS Prime lawsuit, GKFX in Australia
This week’s slate of Forex Industry News stories had a little bit of everything from virtually every corner of the globe.
And, as usual, all the top stories and headlines appeared exclusively at FNG!
What did bankrupt USGFX’s shareholder Soe Hein Minn accuse liquidator BRI Ferrier of? And, how did BRI respond?
What was the latest volley fired in the ongoing legal dispute between ThinkMarkets and ISAM Capital / IS Prime, which has now enveloped a senior IT employee who moved from one company to the other?
What company did GKFX buy to gain entry to the Australia FX market?
Which up-and-coming European fintech firm is opening an office in Cyprus?
These stories and more appeared first or exclusively this week at FNG. Some of the top FX industry news stories to appear this past week on FNG included:
Exclusive: Liquidators reply to USGFX Global accusations. Only at FNG… Following our report earlier this week on the accusations made by USGFX’s shareholder Soe Hein Minn against BRI Ferrier, the liquidator of the bankrupt Australia arm of USGFX, we spoke to BRI Ferrier and have their response, exclusively here at FNG. As a reminder to our readers, the USGFX shareholder accused BRI Ferrier of a number of things, including that BRI “abused its power” and instructed the First Bank in Puerto Rico to freeze USGFX Global’s accounts there. We had earlier reported that USGFX Global in Vanuatu had been directly soliciting former USGFX Australia clients, instructing them to send money to those accounts in Puerto Rico.
Exclusive: Sued ex employee hits back at “litigious disgruntled employer” ThinkMarkets. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that James Sorenson, the former ThinkMarkets employee who moved to rival ISAM Capital Markets Group and was then sued by ThinkMarkets, has filed a response in United States District Court, Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division. FNG has viewed court documents which provide Mr. Sorenson’s response, and asks for the court to dismiss the lawsuit against him. He starts out by calling ThinkMarkets’ lawsuit a “fishing expedition” filed by a “litigious disgruntled former employer” against its former employee, because he left to work for a competitor. The Sorenson response also points out that he is in fact being picked on because ThinkMarkets and his new employer, ISAM Group, are not just competitors but are locked in a legal battle themselves.
GKFX enters Australia buying liquidity provider FairMarkets Trading. Turkey’s Global Kapital Group, which operates the GKFX retail FX and GKPro (Powered by GKFX) institutional brokerage brands, has announced the acquisition of Australia based FairMarkets Trading Pty Ltd. FairMarkets is an ASIC licensed institutional FX and CFDs broker, acting as a liquidity provider for over-the-counter derivatives. The company, which rebranded from ILQ Australia to FairMarkets in 2018, has been fairly inactive for the past couple of years, and so this appears to be a relatively inexpensive and quick attempt by GKFX to enter the Australia regulated market. The move comes at a curious time, as new ASIC rules limiting client leverage to 30x and requiring negative balance protection are about to come into force this month.
Exclusive: Retail investment app Plum opening Cyprus office. FNG Exclusive… FNG has learned that AI-driven retail savings and investment app Plum is opening a new office in Nicosia, Cyprus. Plum, which currently has offices in London and Athens, is actively recruiting financial technology specialists and is looking to have about 20 people based in Cyprus in the coming months. The team in Cyprus will be mainly focusing on Plum’s Investment product, with the company looking to recruit backend engineers and operational brokerage specialists. Plum’s founder and CEO Victor Trokoudes is a Cypriot native, as is the company’s London based Head of Brand Andreas Kapsos, whom we reported joined Plum earlier this year from Revolut.
Among the top FX industry executive moves reported at FNG this week were:
❑ IS Prime hires Dan Lewis from ATFX for institutional sales.
❑ AEGIS Hedging appoints Lauren Trice as Chief Marketing Officer.
❑ Edgewater Markets rehires Jerry Chan as eFX Manager in London.
❑ Ex HSBC innovation head Diana Biggs joins Valour to lead Bitcoin Zero.
❑ Plus500 to put Board changes to vote at EGM.