As the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has informed on Thursday, the binary options broker Banc de Binary has accepted an $11 million settlement with U.S. authorities, after the previous allegations that the CySEC-regulated company signed up U.S. investors to its binary options trading platform illegally.
Banc de Binary, operating also in Israel and the Seychelles, has finally reached an agreement, following the allegations in 2013 by the SEC and CFTC. According to the WSJ, the settlement was made this week with a Nevada court. No official announcement has been made by either the company, the SEC or the CFTC for now.
US authorities sued the binary options broker Banc de Binary, that it solicited and took orders from U.S. customers in the period from 2011 to 2013, sidestepping a U.S. ban on off-exchange binary option contracts. Furthermore, an address of a “virtual office” in New York’s Trump Tower was used by the broker, published on its website and in communications with clients from the United States.
Under the agreed settlement between the company and U.S. authorities, Banc de Binary is obliged to pay $7.1 million in disgorgement and restitution of fees earned, $2 million in civil penalties to the CFTC, and $1.95 million in SEC civil penalties.
A $9 million fund will be established with the money to repay U.S. clients, harmed by the trading platform. Banc de Binary accepted net deposits from 6,600 U.S. clients, reaching $11 million, as the CFTC informed.
In the court filings, Banc de Binary announcet, that it neither admits or denies the allegations. As the Banc de Binary spokesman stated for the WSJ:
“We look forward to putting this behind us. We thank the U.S. agencies for their professionalism during the course of this matter.”
Oren Laurent, Banc de Binary founder, was also in the CFTC complaint. He will be obliged to pay $150,000 as part of the settlement.
The SEC/CFTC settlement comes after a previous, smaller, but an exemplary settlement of €350,000 (USD $385,000), of Banc de Binary and Cyprus financial regulator CySEC at the end of January due to violations around customer marketing and checks on client suitability.
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