The CySEC-regulated investment firm UR Trade Fix Ltd operates PlusMarkets broker under the license number 282/15. Within the scope of this license, the company is authorized to operate the domain www.plusmarkets.eu within the EU or EEA only and must comply with the relevant regulatory requirements. But as most CySEC-regulated brokers, PlusMarkets entertains an offshore mutation operating with the unauthorized domain www.plusmarkets.com. This offshore mutation acquires and accepts investors from the EEA and circumvents regulatory frameworks and investor protection.

Circumventing regulatory frameworks

To circumvent regulatory requirements and investor protections, these offshore mutations must not be affiliated with CySEC-regulated entities. Therefore, they operate through trustees and nominee directors. The PlusMarkets offshore mutation has been carefully crafted:

• The domain www.plusmarkets.com belongs to Octafon Limited, registered in Limassol, Cyprus, which owned and managed via the trustee M. KYPRIANOU FIDUCIARIES (CYPRUS) LTD (OpenCorporates)
• The website under this domain is operated by the unregulated offshore entity UR Trade Global LLC, registered in St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

Unlimited deposits before KYC

Also, with the offshore mutation of PlusMarkets, it is possible to make deposits before the KYC process is completed. There are two payment options to choose from:

• Bitcoin (BTC) to the address 1EEoesXJ1BYqLe1qKKuaTEMwBfQunYkAix to which more than BTC 1.8 was deposited at the time of the review and
• Bank wire to the bank account of the offshore entity UR Trade Global LLC at the Estonian AS LHV Pank (www.lhv.ee).

On its offshore platform, PlusMarkets accepted a simulated transfer of €100,000 without any problems. At that time, we have not even confirmed our email address, not to mention establishing the identity and origin of the money. All this is not a problem for offshore mutations.

The KYC procedure on the offshore mutation has a significantly lower standard than on the CySEC-regulated platform. Offshore, no questions regarding the risk assessment and the financial understanding are asked. Tax number details are optional. While there are more deposit options on the regulated variantm there is no BTC option.

As a customer of offshore mutations, you explicitly waive your right to the regulatory regime of investor protection in the EU. We think that this waiver is not effective under EU consumer law and may be immoral.

Boiler Room in Belgrade

The boiler rooms of PlusMarkets offshore (www.plusmarkets.com) are operated in Belgrade with more than 40 people. They work with target clients in English, Spanish, Arabic, and Hungarian. Boiler room agents are trained and recruited through the notorious Silver Bell Group DOO. FinTelegram has a copy of the boiler room agent training scripts for PlusMarkets.

Silver Bell Group works as a tutor for several broker scams such as TradeFintech (www.tradefintech.com) and other offshore mutations of CySEC firms such as EuropeFX from Maxiflex (www.europefx.com.au). Silver Bell Group‘s boiler room scripts also show interesting connections such as between EuropeFX and the TradeFintech scam.

Boiler room agents trained by Silver Bell Group later pose as experienced brokers using false names and entice consumers to invest with false promises. In the PlusMarkets offshore boiler room script, agents are instructed to point out that the group is also registered and licensed in the EU (see screenshot above left).

Institutionalized deception

As with other reviews of regulated CySEC investment firms and their brands such as EverFX, FXGlobe, EuropeFX, or LegacyFX, it has been found that the business practices at PlusMarkets are in no way compliant with EU regulations. The CySEC is responsible for this usually takes a very relaxed stand in that.

The offshore mutations mislead investors in the EEA. They share social media accounts with CySEC-regulated brands and give investors (consumers) the feeling that they have landed with EU-regulated ones. However, this is not true. Since the offers are high-risk and speculative products and boiler rooms outside the EEA are working behind them, problems are inevitable. Then the deceived consumers may complain to authorities in St. Vincent & the Grenadines or Vanuatu. Have fun with it.