KordaMentha, the company appointed as a liquidator of now defunct Forex broker BlackfortFX/Arena Capital Limited, has started legal proceedings against some of the debtor clients of the brokerage. The confirmation for this action is contained in an update regarding the liquidation process.
The legal process concerns clients who have received profits from the brokerage while it was active. However, investigations of the activities of BlackFort FX have shown that the broker was never actually active in the Forex market and that the “profits” paid to some clients were fictitious and the money should be returned.
Out of the 96 debtor clients, only 14 have agreed to repay the “profits”. The firm has now started a legal process against higher value debtor clients, in order to recover the money they received. This action, however, may take several months to complete. This will, in turn, affect the timing of return of funds to clients that are owed money from Arena.
According to KordaMentha, Arena owes NZ$6.96 million (US$4.66m) to 925 clients:
Account balances have been agreed with 818 creditor clients, to whom Arena owes a total of NZ$6.43 million.
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have previously confirmed they are conducting investigations into the events leading up to BlackFort FX being placed into receivership and liquidation.
To view the full text of the update, click here.