SFO still seeking trading entity for failed forex trader

SFO yet to discover trading entity for failed foreign exchange trading firm

By Russell Palmer

Dec. 19 (BusinessDesk) - Serious Fraud Office investigators have yet to determine what legal entity a Whangarei-based foreign exchange company was using to trade currencies.

CFX Trade Safe, which is in liquidation, had $13,914 in cash as its total assets and no liabilities, according to the first liquidators report released this week. The company traded for an estimated 50 clients both domestically and internationally.

The report says the balance remaining in the account is interest earned on trust funds, where the interest was not provided for by the investors. No other assets are listed. The company is under investigation for allegedly hiding large losses from investors.

“While the SFO has established the identity of the individuals involved, the office is yet to confirm exactly which legal entity undertook the trading function,” said Simon McArley, the SFO’s general manager, financial markets and corporate fraud.

Liquidator Vivian Fatupaito says there is some other money tied up in a separate partnership under the directors’ names, but the investigation is ongoing and the details are still being sorted out.

The company went into liquidation on Dec. 13 and has been under investigation since September, after an employee of the company contacted the white collar crime unit.

When the investigation was announced, media reports said the SFO suspected that documents had been falsified to cover up losses of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Directors Christopher and Joy Collecutt and Maynard Williams have been running the company since 2009 and the Collecutts each own 50 percent of its shares, according to the Companies Office.

McArley says all parties involved are cooperating fully with the investigation and he hopes the matter will be concluded in the New Year.

(BusinessDesk)

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