Update ‘Zoo Broker Scam Network’ – New entities and Blue Trading connection identified

The Zoo Broker Scam Network is growing almost every day. Since our Request for Information FinTelegram whistleblowers provide new investor warnings from financial market regulators and other information. The Zoo Broker Scam Network keeps our team very busy actually. Meanwhile, we also worked out that most of the illegal and fraudulent schemes are operated by the very same boiler rooms which also operated those of Uwe Lenhoff and Gal Barak. Moreover, we found blockchain traces to the Blue Trading scheme. Slowly but surely we are clamping down on the perpetrators of this worldwide fraud scheme, which operates via offshore companies on the Marshall Islands.

New broker scam companies exposed

Over the last few days, we have been able to assign the following new companies to the Zoo Broker Scam Network which is to be seen as a common enterprise with a common purpose under criminal law. It’s a racket with the purpose to defraud investors and launder illicit money:

• Black Parrot Limited (Marshall Islands)
• Arboretix Trading Limited
• Vortex Assets Corporation
• Touch Trades Limited

These are the company names used by financial market supervisory authorities in their warnings (see the Dutch watchdog AMF’s warning here). In fact, we still have to examine them in detail.

New broker scam brands identified

The Zoo Broker Scam Network has also grown regarding the number of identified schemes. The following domains (brands) have been associated with the network:

In total, the number of fraudulent broker schemes operated by the Marshall Islands-based Zoo Broker Scam Network comprises 19 brands (domains). We are pretty sure, that more schemes will be included in the list soon.

There is hardly any financial market supervisory authority on this planet that has not issued an investor warning against one of the schemes. Moreover, the Forex Peace Army (FPA) Traders Court has issued many “scam guilty votes” against the schemes and its operators (see the Vortex Assets).

Following the Blockchain traces

Clients of the Zoo Broker Scam schemes are able to deposit their funds via cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC). Interestingly, the BTC address provided for deposits on the currently still active ProFxPremium is 3MvMiZhu6WhwNqCgEYDTW6iFv6Fe6cNp7n which has been established in Feb 2019. Following the blockchain traces, one quickly finds the BTC address 1F9TFENnWwQHo1wjqcFa9KwQRa7bisBdwH which received more than BTC 1,459 since its creation in Jan 2018. Finally, following the flow of funds on blockchain one discovers BTC addresses associated with the Blue Trading scheme (read FinTelegram report here).

While we are not yet establishing the hypothesis that Blue Trading is part of the Zoo Broker Scam Network we are pretty sure that the perpetrators behind the schemes are closely connected and exchange resources such as boiler rooms, client data, trustees/nominees, and payment services (to be continued).

Report illegal broker schemes

Illegally operating broker schemes and their boiler rooms are part of fast-growing global cybercrime activities. Millions of investors are defrauded by those broker sites losing billions of euros every year. Hence, it is important to warn investors of such illicit sites. If you are a victim of an illegally operating broker site such as Tradeinvest90, Option888, XMarkets, XTraderFX, GToptions, StoxMarket, Bluetrading, FXTrade777, or KayaFX please file your claim and report activities via our whistleblower system: