Massachusetts Court Charges Man with Forex Fraud

The U.S. Federal Court of Massachusetts charged Craig Karlis, the former owner of Boston Trading and Research LLC, to nine years in prison and asked to refund defrauded clients of the company’s forex scheme $4,378,306.

Moreover, Mr. Karlis still awaits a verdict in the lawsuit that was filed by Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 for defrauding over 700 clients of Boston Trading more than $30 million after persuading them to join the company’s managed trading accounts.

Karlis founded the company together with Ahmet Devrim Akyil, a Turkish national who is yet to be found. The two partners began requesting clients to invest with them in the forex markets in 2007 and insisted that they traded using their clients’ funds.

The two partners began splurging client monies on the company’s expenses and on luxurious real estate, jewelry and cars as well as hiding the losses the company suffered from trading using such funds. However, the forex scam collapsed after the global financial recession hit home, drawing the attention of SEC.

Elsewhere, leading U.S. Forex broker Interactive Brokers plans to announce its new president and chief executive officer to take over from Thomas Peterffy in October 13, 2014. The appointment of a new CEO doesn’t in anyway mean Peterffy will step down, but is rather establishing a long-term succession strategy.

 “Still, we don’t expect a timeline when Mr. Peterffy, who still appears to enjoy his role in the company he founded, will retire or that the switch-over will take place anytime soon,” said Richard Repetto, an analyst at Sandler O’Neill.