NMC billionaire’s broker hit by ban

AN ONLINE broker part-owned by one of the Emirati billionaires at the centre of the NMC Health scandal has had its licence suspended in two countries for a string of compliance breaches.

The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Australia-based AxiCorp, in which Khalifa Bin Butti has a stake, had its licence suspended in Australia and New Zealand for failing to comply with financial services laws.

Bin Butti, who was ejected from the board of embattled FTSE100 hospitals operator NMC last month after a share ownership scandal, sold One Financial Markets, a British trading site he founded in 2007, to AxiCorp last year. As part of the deal, Bin Butti took an equity stake in AxiCorp, which runs foreign exchange broker AxiTrader and One Financial Markets.

In Australia, AxiCorp’s licence was suspended in January for four months by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission. AxiCorp has appealed the decision and has been granted a stay of suspension pending a review, allowing it to continue to operate for now.

The regulator said it was suspended for a series of breaches around compliance, including ‘deficiencies and systemic failures in AxiCorp’s compliance regime’.

Last August, it was suspended for ‘material breaches’ by New Zealand’s financial regulator.

A spokesman for Bin Butti declined to comment on AxiCorp.

NMC is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority and its shares were suspended last week after financing deals involving Bin Butti were uncovered. Last week, Bin Butti said he was not given a ‘reasonable opportunity’ to help with NMC’s investigation and denied wrongdoing.