Cyberfinance is an exciting area. There is a lot of money to be made from it, and it may be perfectly laundered. For example, in the countries with Golden Passport schemes such as Cyprus or Malta, many Russian entrepreneurs are said to put their money into regulated investment firms. According to money-laundering experts, these investment firms are also used to launder illicit income. Georgian Amiran Azaladze has focused his FX B2B Hub Ltd on brokering licenses from CySEC, FCA, and many offshore regulators. A CySEC MM license goes for roughly one million dollars; an FCA MM license costs more than $1.1M.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Amiran Azaladze lives in Hong Kong. His Forex Brokers License website (https://www.forexbrokerslicense.com) lists the required deposits and prices for each license type and regulator. For a CySEC MM license, the applicant must deposit $890k. In addition, there is an application fee of $100k. The annual renewal fee is $9,600. For the FCA MM license, the applicant must deposit $950k and pay an application fee of $175k. The annual renewal fee is $16.5k.
Through his website FX B2B Hub (www.fxb2bhub.com), Amiran Azaladze also arranges the required software solution, bank accounts, payment providers, and turnkey solutions. Reportedly, his company has already brokered 179 broker licenses, launched 28 FX brokers, and registered 357. Impressive, isn’t it?
The costs for offshore licenses are significantly lower. For Vanuatu, a $50k deposit and a $47k application fee are enough. However, this license is hardly worth anything. You cannot offer registered financial services in any other regulatory regime.
