Daily fraud update: 24th February

Senior TFS-ICAP figures fight back in fraud case

Two senior figures from the company TFS-ICAP who have been accused of carrying out fraud have responded to the allegations.

The firm’s ex-Chief Executive Officer Ian Dibb and its ex-Head of Emerging Markets Broking Jeremy Woolfenden face charges of fraud from a US regulator, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

They stand accused of permitting their staff to mislead foreign exchange trading clients over a period from 2008 to 2015 by creating false foreign exchange options bids.

This behaviour, which is sometimes called either “printing trades” or “flying prices”, was allegedly known about by the two senior figures – Dibb and Woolfenden – at the firm.

On Friday of last week, however, they both submitted their responses to the claims in the New York Southern District Court.

According to press reports, the pair intend to rely on a number of lines of defence.

One of these is that the complaints against them are not valid in terms of the alleged contravention of the Commodity Exchange Act.

TFS-ICAP claims that this is the case partly because the alleged behaviour happened before the Dodd Frank Act, a US consumer protection law, came into force afterwards.

Billionaire sues Facebook over crypto adverts

A man formerly married to pop star Janet Jackson has announced that he is suing the social networking website Facebook.

Wissam Al Mana, a Qatari billionaire, claims that a cryptocurrency scam stole his photograph as part of a promotional campaign on the site.

However, Al Mana claims that the scammers did not have permission to do so.

According to press reports, Al Mana is now suing Facebook with a range of claims.

These are believed to include false advertising, defamation and malicious falsehood.

It is believed that the promotional campaign from the crypto firm took place in the Middle East.

It is understood that the case will be heard in Dublin, where Facebook’s European headquarters are.

Facebook has been accused in the past of using the first amendment to the US constitution, which covers freedom of speech, to avoid having to act in certain ways to look after users.

Al Mana has posted a disclaimer on his official website which outlines his lack of a presence on social media.

“www.wissamalmana.com is the only official source of information about Mr. Wissam Al Mana on the Internet”, it reads.

“He does not operate any social media accounts, so any accounts that you find with his name or picture are not official and should not be quoted or used as a source of accurate information”, it adds.

Al Mana’s business empire covers a range of fields and sectors, including fashion.

The case, which was most recently reported to be at the injunction stage after that was lodged in Dublin’s High Court, is understood to be represented by a firm of solicitors from Cork called Ronan Daly Jermyn.

Chris Lee

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