The Readers’ Champion
THE alleged bosses of a scam binary options investment company are facing legal action four years after The Mail on Sunday raised the alarm. But the case is being brought in the US. No action was taken in the UK.
The US Securities & Exchange Commission has charged Anton Senderov and Lior Babazara, both from Israel, with defrauding 2,800 American investors, who it says lost $5 million (£4 million).
Court records say the pair controlled LBinary, a ‘boiler room’ fraud that induced investors to bet on short-term changes in the prices of shares, commodities and currencies.
I warned in 2015 that the odds were stacked against investors, with the company making several false claims.
It posed as a Gibraltar business owned by a separate firm in the Seychelles, but I revealed its real location to be in Israel. The SEC’s legal action claims LBinary employed more than 100 people and ran a worldwide call centre where sales staff lied, saying that they were experienced financial professionals.
American authorities have so far brought criminal charges against 15 Israelis for binary options frauds involving hundreds of millions of pounds.
In many cases, including that of LBinary, it is asking courts to order complete refunds to the victims.
British victims will not benefit though. The Financial Conduct Authority and other watchdogs took no action while these companies were operating, even allowing at least one huge binary options scam firm on to its public register, though the FCA did later put a warning notice on its website.