‘His wife said he had committed suicide’

GABRIELE GIAMBRONE is the lawyer at the head of a class action lawsuit representing close to 3,000 alleged victims of binary options and forex traders. The claimants say they have been defrauded of more than £92m.

However, he and his team spend much of their time comforting heartbroken callers.

“The amount of people crying on the phone,” he said, sighing. “You can speak to any of my lawyers, they spend many hours doing counselling rather than legal work.

“Everyone has different expectations for lawyers. But some clients have to vent their anger, because they’re going through a divorce or they have had to sell their house, and we have to listen.”

One victim, an Italian client, had called Giambrone Law after investing — andlosing—morethan£220,000 to a binary options scheme.

“Hehadputintheamount he had received as a lump sum payment after retiring; he had mortgaged his house to invest this money, and was told he would get £300,000 within 30 days.

“He wanted to use it to Lawsuit: Giambrone buy a house for his daughter, who was getting married. Then he realised he had lost it all. When we phoned a few weeks later for an update, his wife said he had committed suicide.” Mr Giambrone added: “The binary options market is like the Wild West. You andIcouldsetupabinaryoptionscompany,andno-onewouldcheckonus. If wewantedtoregisteritinCyprus, wecoulddothatonline. “You can do it from a bedroom and start receiving millions in a bank account in Romania, and once you have enough money, just turn the website off. ”