The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced yesterday that it has charged three foreign individuals with deceiving U.S. investors, causing them to lose millions of dollars and entire life savings through fraudulent, online sales of binary options.
The defendants Gil Beserglik, Raz Beserglik and Kai Christian Petersen, deceived the investors through 3 online binary options brokers (Bloombex Options, Morton Finance and Starling Capital) promising quick profits.
Fraudsters used call centers in Germany and Israel which operated as “boiler rooms,” where salespersons used high pressure sales tactics to sell speculative binary options to the investors. Fraudsters persuaded investors to open binary option trading accounts and deposit large sums there. The brokers earned money only from investor losses, did not advise investors on how to trade binary options profitably, and refused to let the investors withdraw money from their trading accounts.
For some victims, this international scheme cost them their entire life savings,” said Melissa R. Hodgman, Associate Director in the SEC’s Enforcement Division. “This action reflects the SEC’s continued pursuit of those that drain the retirement accounts of vulnerable investors, including those who perpetrate their fraud from abroad.