Broco officially blows up

As if this wasn't anticipated for some time now: Broco's CEO Valery Maltsev has officially announced that the company is shutting down due to police investigation.

In 2010 Broco was sued by the SEC for manipulating client positions, SEC claimed that: "The Commission’s complaint alleges that BroCo Investments, Inc., its president Valery Maltsev, and/or individuals acting in concert with them hijacked the online brokerage accounts of unwitting investors using stolen usernames and passwords and subsequently placed unauthorized trades through the compromised accounts to manipulate the markets of at least thirty-eight issuers between August 2009 and December 2009. In almost every instance, prior to intruding into these accounts, the Defendants acquired positions in their own account. Then, just minutes later, without the accountholders’ knowledge, the Defendants, and/or individuals acting in concert with them, placed scores of unauthorized buy orders at above-market prices using the compromised accounts. After these unauthorized buy orders were placed, the Defendants sold the positions held in their own account at the artificially inflated prices."

Subsequently Mauritius FSC suspended Broco's license. Broco then settled the complaint with SEC, some alleged it paid the fine from client funds.

Today Valery Maltsev officially announced on a corporate forum that as of 00:00 on July 25th company's services are suspended. Mr. Maltsev writes to explain that the allegations have been brought against the company by former clients who traded and lost their funds in 2008-2009 although they traded for months. Broco is also accused of operating without a license (not clear what this is about since Russia doesn't regulate Forex Forex Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Foreign exchange or forex is the act of converting one nation’s currency into another nation’s currency (that possesses a different currency); for example, the converting of British Pounds into US Dollars, and vice versa. The exchange of currencies can be done over a physical counter, such as at a Bureau de Change, or over the internet via broker platforms, where currency speculation takes place, known as forex trading.The foreign exchange market, by its very nature, is the world’s largest tradi Read this Term) and that Broco didn't clear all trades on international markets (again, this count not very clear).

Mr. Maltsev also claims that it's the 4th raid on the company's offices in past 2.5 years which according to him every time cost the company all its technology equipment, servers and some employees. After each raid potential investors in future company projects withdrew their interest.

Mr. Maltsev states that "In every process there is a moment where you have no longer power to fight attempts to blacken, defame and rip apart the company. We no longer have any strength left."

He continues: "In the last 2.5 years we've experienced too many shocks for company our size but we've done everything in our power to restore all processes and make sure that clients aren't affected. However backlash of the SEC case, aggressive corporate war into which the company and personally I were drawn into, the latest wave of bankruptcies of several American prime brokers and the latest raid all extinguished our resources and has put an end to Broco's existence.

The employees, as well as heads of departments have made every effort to ensure that the company went out of the crisis, and we managed to do so, however these factors played a decisive role. I assured employees until the last moment hoping that the troubles will cease, and we can go back working in a normal atmosphere. We were not given this. Starting tomorrow, 99% of the personnel of the company will be dismissed, this is after they have invested the maximum effort in the company. I know that the employees were affected the most in this situation, and what happened to the company is not their fault.

Starting tomorrow, we will stop the activities of all companies included in the «Broco» group of companies. Tomorrow, because of these factors, as well as lack of network resources and access to systems, our customers will not be able to access dealers and technical support. Tomorrow (July 25, 2012) from 02:00 am Moscow time, all clients will only be able to close out positions in trade terminals. On Friday, at 23:59 Moscow time all positions will be closed automatically. Due to lack of resources and access to the support systems, we can not accept and process customer orders in your account, so we will officially begin accepting applications (requirements) of the clients for payment of funds from their trading accounts in writing to the address of the company (I'll post all the samples documents and the address to which they will need to be sent). Due to lack of network resources, company websites as well as personal cabinet will run until July 27, 2012. Also, it's unclear whether we can send messages to the trading terminal. In any event, a forum of the company will work continuously, and on it I will inform customers about the current situation.

"Broco» for me personally, is more than the company. This is my life, so I forgive my customers, partners, contractors, suppliers and employees. I could not cope with this difficult situation, despite the fact that I've done more than possible.

All the important information as it becomes available, I'll cover in this thread on the Forum."

Thus Broco joins the ranks of several Russian forex brokers lately gone bust. Previous one was Royal Max Brokers which turned out to be a major scam.

Broco's website seems to be fully operational and this notice is not found on its homepage as you'd normally expect. There's no confirmation from the police or newspapers about this raid on Broco and several sources suggested this may be just another attempt of Broco to avoid paying customers back. Time will tell.

P.S. Maltsev then posted photos of what seems to be an empty office, possibly after the alleged raid.