Forex Trend Exposed: What Happened to Those Client Funds?

by Victor Golovtchenko
  • While the New Zealand regulatory body did not protect clients from the broker’s wrongdoings the legislation has mandated it to file annual reports
Forex Trend Exposed: What Happened to Those Client Funds?
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Today, New Zealand regulatory authorities published a communique revealing that they have suspended the registration of Ukrainian broker Forex Trend. The company has become infamous for suspending withdrawals for its clients and coming up with questionable excuses about where client funds went.

Where did the deposits of the clients who have invested in the broker’s PAMM accounts go?

After the New Zealand-based company's office informed the Financial Dispute Resolution about the firm closing operations from the 12th of June, the action by the Financial Service Providers Register does not come as a surprise.

An official announcement is still missing from the broker's website. Moreover, it is still fully operational and any prospective depositor would have to look very carefully in order to determine that the firm has had issues with its operations.

Only a thorough Google search would yield results, but then, not all prospective customers of retail trading outfits are used to doing any of that. The brand and the website still exist, although the company’s management and client funds are missing from the picture.

The traders who were tricked into depositing are presently barely able to share their opinions on a variety of online forums, namely in Russian, since the broker has been targeting mostly individuals from the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region.

After rumors about external investors taking over the broker's assets, hope amongst the victims of Forex Trend increased. However, aside from a vague official announcement on the firm's website, nothing indicates a resolution in the near future.

For those not familiar with the story so far, the background of the Forex Trend bailout is as follow. After the suspension of withdrawals, a company named Concorde Capital emerged to allegedly save the ailing broker. According to the rumors circulating across various forums, the new entity acquiring the assets of Forex Trend was supposed to be Concorde FX.

The financial statement of Forex Trend which was mentioned above can be read at the bottom of the article. Meanwhile, let’s highlight some of the figures in it.

For the fiscal year ending on the 31st of March 2014, the revenues of the company totaled NZ$4 million (at the time $3.2 million). Bottom line the profits of the firm totaled merely NZ$36,000 ($29,000). The company has spent all of its revenues from “trading on foreign exchange market” for “consultation services." The total figure was about NZ$2.7 million.

So could these be the revenues from the volumes generated by client deposits? The answer will be left up to our fellow readers, but we will add one more figure from the annual report.

The total for maintaining the operations of the New Zealand office amounted to NZ$ 85,000, plus some NZ$9,200 for the company's auditing.

In the meantime, the consultants have been substantially benefiting from their services after the client funds declared by the company totaled a mere NZ$ 632,000 ($505,000). How did the fraudulent broker manage to generate NZ$4 million of revenues?

A very successful money manager operating in foreign exchange on Leverage can return 20 percent occasionally, but getting NZ$4 million from NZ$ 632,000 sounds debatable at best. A screenshot of the company's financials is available below.

Forex Trend Statement of Financial Results for 2013

Today, New Zealand regulatory authorities published a communique revealing that they have suspended the registration of Ukrainian broker Forex Trend. The company has become infamous for suspending withdrawals for its clients and coming up with questionable excuses about where client funds went.

Where did the deposits of the clients who have invested in the broker’s PAMM accounts go?

After the New Zealand-based company's office informed the Financial Dispute Resolution about the firm closing operations from the 12th of June, the action by the Financial Service Providers Register does not come as a surprise.

An official announcement is still missing from the broker's website. Moreover, it is still fully operational and any prospective depositor would have to look very carefully in order to determine that the firm has had issues with its operations.

Only a thorough Google search would yield results, but then, not all prospective customers of retail trading outfits are used to doing any of that. The brand and the website still exist, although the company’s management and client funds are missing from the picture.

The traders who were tricked into depositing are presently barely able to share their opinions on a variety of online forums, namely in Russian, since the broker has been targeting mostly individuals from the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) region.

After rumors about external investors taking over the broker's assets, hope amongst the victims of Forex Trend increased. However, aside from a vague official announcement on the firm's website, nothing indicates a resolution in the near future.

For those not familiar with the story so far, the background of the Forex Trend bailout is as follow. After the suspension of withdrawals, a company named Concorde Capital emerged to allegedly save the ailing broker. According to the rumors circulating across various forums, the new entity acquiring the assets of Forex Trend was supposed to be Concorde FX.

The financial statement of Forex Trend which was mentioned above can be read at the bottom of the article. Meanwhile, let’s highlight some of the figures in it.

For the fiscal year ending on the 31st of March 2014, the revenues of the company totaled NZ$4 million (at the time $3.2 million). Bottom line the profits of the firm totaled merely NZ$36,000 ($29,000). The company has spent all of its revenues from “trading on foreign exchange market” for “consultation services." The total figure was about NZ$2.7 million.

So could these be the revenues from the volumes generated by client deposits? The answer will be left up to our fellow readers, but we will add one more figure from the annual report.

The total for maintaining the operations of the New Zealand office amounted to NZ$ 85,000, plus some NZ$9,200 for the company's auditing.

In the meantime, the consultants have been substantially benefiting from their services after the client funds declared by the company totaled a mere NZ$ 632,000 ($505,000). How did the fraudulent broker manage to generate NZ$4 million of revenues?

A very successful money manager operating in foreign exchange on Leverage can return 20 percent occasionally, but getting NZ$4 million from NZ$ 632,000 sounds debatable at best. A screenshot of the company's financials is available below.

Forex Trend Statement of Financial Results for 2013

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