Three men managed to squeeze out more than 100 million USD of gullible investors through three binary options websites in what appears to be one of the biggest binary options scams, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed on Thursday.
Kai Christian Petersen, Gil Beserglik, and Raz Beserglik used misleading marketing techniques and manipulative call centers, also known as boiler rooms, to convince investors to trade binary options through three websites, reads the official complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The binary options websites in question – Bloombex Options, Morton Finance, and Starling Capital – were creatively designed and used professionally looking trading platforms to deliberately mislead investors that the brokers are legit.
The call centers were located in Germany and Israel and investors were pressured to deposit large amounts of money.
“For some victims, this international scheme cost them their entire life savings. This action reflects the SEC’s continued pursuit of those that drain the retirement accounts of vulnerable investors, including those who perpetrate their fraud from abroad”, said Melissa R. Hodgman, Associate Director of SEC’s Enforcement Division.
