Australia financial regulator ASIC has taken action to permanently shut down unlicensed FX broker KiwiFx Bank, operating via website www.kiwifxbank.com, formally incorporated as Vault Market Pty Ltd. ASIC has also removed KiwiFx Bank’s sole director, Anamul Amin, from the financial services industry.
This outcome continues what ASIC calls its crackdown on the FX industry. ASIC has now taken action against five different individuals and/or forex related entities in 2014. And ASIC says that there are several more investigations ongoing.
ASIC’s investigation found that Mr Amin, of Wiley Park, New South Wales, was running an unlicensed FX business through a website with the domain name www.kiwifxbank.com. The operation of the website was partly conducted from Bangladesh and had more than $1 million in funds from more than 800 investors. The company running the website, Mr. Amin’s Vault Market, wrongly held out that it had an Australian financial services (AFS) licence.
Vault Market advertised that a fictitious person, by the name of Alex Edward was the Managing Director, and that Vault Market was an Australian bank.
As part of the action, Anamul Amin was banned from providing financial services for eight years and from managing a corporation for five years.
ASIC’s involvement began earlier this year when it received complaints that overseas clients of KiwiFx Bank had not received profits which they generated from trading.
ASIC also identified a number of clone websites that appear to have copied the KiwiFx Bank website and who do not hold an AFS licence.
To see the ASIC news release on its action against KiwiFx Bank and Anamul Amin click here.