For years, investors have complained of a range of platform irregularities and questionable practices, which may have violated the broker's duties with regard to various regulated entities, which in turn, where discovered, could provide clients with the right to recover losses. On a great number of a well know platforms, customers, many of whom lacked prior experience trading complex financial products, have suffered significant financial harm. In addition, some clients have been wrongly accused of market abuse and had profitable trades cancelled, lost money due to unfair margin policies, or experienced long delays in accessing their funds.
There are signs that despite some regulatory bodies beginning to combat unethical behavior in the brokerage industry more aggressively, the growing menace of financial fraud is becoming more organised and sophisticated. It becomes imperative to ensure that any professional advisors enlisted to assist in recovering lost funds have a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the commonly used techniques used by the unscrupulous platforms to both defraud the investors and cover their tracks once having done so.
The on-going David and Goliath battle currently being fought across the globe by law firms and regulators, whilst still challenging, it is looking more and more likely that David will triumph yet again as the fraudulent brokers are increasingly losing the veneer of respectability and crusading law firms are exposing their practices and recovering their clients' lost funds. Defrauded investors frequently believe that they are in isolation but this is far from the truth. Frequently, once sufficient attention is focused on the fraudulent brokerage, disaffected former clients begin to realise that they are far from alone and that there is a very real prospect of recovering at least some of their lost money using the vehicle of a class action which allows the courts to fully appreciate the systematic nature of the fraudulent practices employed to target and deprive the often novice investors of their money.
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