FX trader extradited

Alleged splurge Mermaid mansion

DANIEL Ali, an unlicensed Australian foreign exchange trader, has been extradited from Poland and arrested for allegedly dishonestly using funds provided by investors to buy himself and his family property and luxury cars.

Mr Ali travelled to Poland in May 2018 after legal proceedings were brought against him by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

The regulator alleges he used money from investors, including funds which came from self-managed superannuation accounts, for his own purposes and to pay returns to other investors he owed money to.

In 2018, The Courier Mail reported Mr Ali had spent the funds buying a waterfront mansion at Mermaid Waters in Queensland. The businessman owned four BMWS and records obtained by liquidators showed he had spent nearly $19,000 for Facet 58 jewellery, $6749 for a Rolex watch and more than $72,000 on goods from Louis Vuitton, Gucci, David Jones and Apple.

Mr Ali’s Danfx Trade business went into administration in November 2017 after ASIC sought freezing orders from the Queensland Supreme Court.

According to a liquidator’s report to creditors in 2018, “Mr Ali operated his scheme through three companies as well as a business registered in his name, Incfx Trade” and “funds were regularly moved between different entity bank accounts”.

“Apart from receiving investor monies, it would appear that Danfx Trade Pty Ltd was the entity used to incur the administration and running costs of the scheme business,” the report to creditors reads. “Some of the funds received from investors were used to meet these costs. Otherwise, the funds were transferred to other entities for investment.”

Financial accounts also showed that there was a related party loan owing to Mr Ali of $137,243 and another owed by a company known as Fanfx Investment Holdings of some $275,000. Investors were owed more than $12.5m.

Following an application by ASIC, a warrant for Mr Ali’s arrest was issued by a Queensland magistrate in December 2020, before Mr Ali was arrested in Poland in November 2021.

Following Australia’s request, the Polish government granted his extradition in July 2022 after Mr Ali consented to being extradited.