Hi everyone

This is the last information I’ve been able to get from FINMA about Crown Forex S.A bankruptcy process.

Here you have below the e-mail I sent to Ms. Sabeti at FINMA and her response.

Hope this brings some light to this messy case

Francesc

_____________________________________

Dear Ms. Sabeti

Do you have any news about Crown Forex S.A situation?

Any deadline to know court resolution to CF management appeal to FINMA’s decision?

Thanks in advanced for your cooperation

Francesc

–
Francesc Riverola
CEO & Founder
http://blogs.fxstreet.com/francesc/
FXstreet.com
FOREXSTREET S.L
Portaferrissa 7, 1er 2ona
Barcelona, 08002
Tel. +34 93 3040495
Fax +34 93 3040496

_____________________________________

Sir,

Finma has been granted a deadline until 17 August to submit its answering brief. We do not expect any decision before end of September. To be clear, the bankruptcy of Crown Forex SA has been declared immediately enforceable.

Yours sincerely

Yasmine Sabeti

–
Yasmine Sabeti
Avocate, L.L.M
Affaires juridiques / Enforcement / International

Eidgenössische Finanzmarktaufsicht FINMA
Autorité fédérale de surveillance des marchés financiers FINMA
Autorità federale di vigilanza sui mercati finanziari FINMA
Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA
Einsteinstrasse 2, CH-3003 Bern
Tel. +41 31 327 94 66
Fax. +41 31 327 91 01

Hi everyone

I got an e-mail from Crown Forex S.A management informing me that their attorneys are going to appeal against FINMA decision to liquidate Crown Forex S.A. This appeal will be sent to the Swiss administrative court tomorrow June 10th 2009, respecting the 30 days notice granted by law.

CF management is pretty sure they will win the appealing… I’m not so sure as FINMA is the regulator and they determine the laws that rule Switzerland Financial Markets and its players and it seems to me that CF is not welcome any longer.

Well… we have already waited for a long time so we will keep in a wait and see mode. Just in case, remember to contact liquidators and file your case before June 30th 2009.

Francesc

——————————–
Dear Francesc,

The company had a meeting today with its defense attorneys and the attorneys confirmed that the appeal will be filed on Wednesday June 10th, in the appeal the company request the following:

1- to cancel the bankruptcy decision
2- to remove the investigators and their powers of supervision over the company
3- to allow the company to continue its activity according to our proposal that is compliant with Swiss regulations:

The lawyers said that what is expected is the following

for lit one its expected that the bankruptcy decision of FINMA will be suspended immediately.
for lit two its unknown.
for lit three its expected that the company will be allowed to practice its activities but under certain conditions.

——————————–

Two days ago, Mr. Ali, chairman of Crown Forex S.A published a commentary on a previous post of this blog that I’m reproducing below:

Crown Forex Update

Dear Clients,

Crown Forex has prepared its appeal against FINMA decision “to put Crown Forex into bankruptcy”. This appeal will be sent to the Swiss administrative court on June 10th 2009 respecting the 30 days notice granted by law.

It is expected that FINMA decision will suspended and the appeal will take its way in the courts awaiting a decision. It’s also important to mention that the shareholders of crown including my self proposed a giant capital increase and proposed to complete the banking application filing.

It’s important that the client understand that the funds are safe but currently blocked by FINMA and the investigation committee for unknown reasons. The investigation committee charges 10k per day for their services; it seems that this is the price you have to pay if you want to hire some one to destroy a financial company now a days!

It is also important to mention that the bankruptcy decision is an exclusive decision of FINMA and not a court decision as Reuters and CNBC and Swiss media mentioned, A spokesman of FINMA has fabricated this lie to the media; the shareholders including my self are planning to sue these organizations as we are suing FINMA for prejudice, misconduct and for publishing false information.

Finally I would like to thank FXSTREET to allow the truth to be published on their blogs.

Ibrahim Ali
Chairman
Crown Forex

Hi everyone

Unfortunately the worst of my fears got confirmed today when I got the confirmation from FINMA that the note sent to Crown Forex S.A clients was true so FINMA is opening a bankruptcy process for the firm.

That decision was already announced here on March 5th 2009. A few days later, on March 9th, I had to correct myself and deny that FINMA’s decision had been bankrupcy as upon Crown Forex S.A’s request, I had to correct myself and deny that FINMA’s decision had been bankrupcy as FINMA’s legal representative was not able to confirm the decision.

Here you have the note FINMA sent yesterday to clients:

Dear clients,

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has rendered on May 18, 2009 a decision opening the bankruptcy of CROWN FOREX SA as of Tuesday May 19, 2009 at 08:00 am (Swiss time).

The decision will be published on May 29, 2009 at 10:00 am (Swiss time).

Philippe von BREDOW and Laurent WINKELMANN have been appointed as bankruptcy liquidators by the FINMA.

Effective immediately, as of the date and time of the bankruptcy opening, the activities of CROWN FOREX SA are suspended, the company, its Directors and officers are forbidden to make or receive payments, and all the clients’ open positions are closed.

We thank you to communicate to the liquidators, until June 30, 2009, in writing the following :

1. Account Number and relevant details;
2. Open positions as of Tuesday 19 May 2009 at 08:00 (Swiss time), together with supporting documents thereof;
3. Any additional claim you may have toward CROWN FOREX SA;
4. Any debt you may have toward CROWN FOREX SA.

Sincerely

Philippe von BREDOW - Laurent WINKELMANN
NOTTER MEGEVAND & PARTNERS
Place Edouard-Claparède 3
1205 Genève
SWITZERLAND
p.vonbredow@nomea.ch
l.winkelmann@nomea.ch

My recommendation is to put yourself immediately in contact with liquidators in order to enter into the liquidation process and recover your funds.

Francesc

Update
Crown Forex S.A indentifies law violations practiced by FINMA’s investigation committee. Decision could be suspended with inmediate effect

Hi everyone

Upon your request and my own interest too - we FXstreet.com have pending advertisement invoices to cash with Crown Forex S.A - I’ve been chasing FINMA this week to try to get an update about the case.

After many e-mails and calls not attended, I finally got lucky and I’ve had the chance to speak with a couple of guys from the law department there.

The only feed-back I got from FINMA was to redirect me to:

http://crownforex.info

Why the hell FINMA is using this site to notify about CF investigation? This information should be at www.crownforex.com home page!

I usually behave myself but this goes beyond my self control… Just go to www.crownforex.com and try to find any information about the investigation. If you find it, please let me know.

… Well, let’s move on.

Ath that unknown web site it says:

“Dear visitors, further to the investigation initiated on December 9, 2008 on the compliance of the activities of CROWN FOREX SA with applicable Swiss Laws, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has rendered its decision on February 23, 2009.

As CROWN FOREX SA appealed against the FINMA’s decision, the latter is not enforceable. No funds can be withdrawn and no new accounts opened during the ongoing procedure.

In addition, due to a modification of Swiss Laws applicable to CROWN FOREX SA’s activities, the Company should have filed on March 31, 2009 at the latest, a banking license request to continue to operate. CROWN FOREX SA did not file such a request.

During the pending procedure, Directors and Officers of CROWN FOREX SA can no longer engage the Company without the signature, joint or individual, of the investigators appointed by the FINMA :

Philippe von BREDOW
Laurent WINKELMANN
NOTTER MEGEVAND & PARTNERS
Place Edouard-Claparède 3
1205 Genève
SWITZERLAND
p.vonbredow@nomea.ch
l.winkelmann@nomea.ch

All further relevant information will be posted on this web site as soon as they can be disclosed.”

So from that statement  we understand that:

1. CF did not apply for banking licence before March 31, 2009.
OK, that’s fine but how come they are still operating if they had to apply for a banking licence to continue to operate?

2. As CROWN FOREX SA appealed against the FINMA’s decision, the decision is not enforceable.
OK, fine too but are we ever going to know what is CF accused off and what was the decision?… rumours point to liquidation.

3. No funds can be withdrawn and no new accounts can be opened during the procedure.

OK, but not fine at all… I went to CF site and I anonymously spoke with a chat rep. He told me I could open an account even though I told him I was aware of an ongoing investigation by FINMA and I had read that no new accounts can be opened. What’s going on here?

Right after speaking with the rep, I contacted both CF and FINMA to confirm the point. FINMA’s answer was to redirect me again to crownforex.info web site…. Hello!!! FINMA guys, nobody knows the existence of such site!

On the other hand, the answer from CF CEO was “Crown Forex accepts to receive new applications and the approval of these applications is subject to the compliance department approval.”

Am I loosing something here? Is It me or am I being teased?

Francesc

IMPORTANT UPDATES:

FINMA Opens Bankrupcy Process of Crown Forex S.A
Crown Forex S.A indentifies law violations practiced by FINMA’s investigation committee. Decision could be suspended with inmediate effect

Hi everyone

This was the week we should have known something regarding the supposed decision taken by FINMA on Crown Forex S.A. I said “supposed” because I’m starting to doubt that the decision has been taken and I’m now more biased to think that they do not know what to do.

Allow me to explain:

I was told by a head of the legal department that is investigating Crown Forex S.A that the decision had been taken on February 23rd and that the company had a period of 30 days to opposite.

The period finished on March 25th and not the 23rd as Hoosier very wisely pointed out in a previous post as February only has 28 days in the month.

So on March 25th we had to know the decision: if the company did not opposite it would be automatically enforced, otherwise the case would go to higher court. So FINMA had just to go public and announce one or the other decision. Period.

But as you very well know, this was not the case…. Today is March 27th and there is still nothing new… Days are passing by and FINMA is hiding the head under the wings.

My conclusion: they do not know what to do, otherwise it does not make any sense, because their latest reply made me laugh (or should have had to cry?):

Dear Mr Riverola
We will inform the public in the Crown Forex case as soon as our decision is effective. Due to procedural reasons this isn’t the case now.
Kind regards,
TL

What does that mean? That if the company opposited and the case goes to a higher court we will not know the decision till it will be enforced in one, two or three years from now? Is this a joke or what?

And if the company did not opposite… Why are you not enforcing the decision you supposedly took already? Is that you need time to enforce a decision?… Then why don’t you say so?

Those of you that follow me in this blog know that I’m a guy that try to be polite with everyone but this case is really piss…. me of.

I’ve been told that my contact at the legal department won’t be back to the office till Wednesday. I’ll give him/her a call as the other sources I had there do not want to collaborate with me at all.

I’ll keep you posted.

Those of you affected by Crown Forex S.A investigation, I just want to tell you that patience has been and will be an asset on this case.

Francesc

IMPORTANT UPDATE:
FINMA Opens Bankrupcy Process of Crown Forex S.A
Crown Forex S.A indentifies law violations practiced by FINMA’s investigation committee. Decision could be suspended with inmediate effect

Hi everyone

On February 23rd FINMA - the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority - took a decision on Crown Forex S.A investigation. The firm had 30 days to opposite, so the opposition period is ending today.

if the company did not opposite, the decision will be enforced around today and if they did opposite, then the issue will go to court and would take longer.

This morning I wrote and call my contacts at FINMA. At this time with no luck, as this guys are in a constant meeting… but I hope sooner or later I’ll be able to catch them even by the neck if necessary

Francesc

Hi everyone

I’m not here to scare people with fake or unfounded rumours about a very serious situation as Crown Forex investigation by FINMA - the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority - is, but I think that my duty is to keep you guys informed in order to give you time to prepare yourself to fight for your what is yours.

Yesterday I announced here that FINMA had completed its investigation and had taken a decision on Crown Forex, but that decision was not yet effective as the company had a period of 30 days to opposite.

What I did not know by then is that FINMA’s decision is to liquidate Crown Forex S.A.

My source is a 100% reliable.

As long as the decision is not effective, the accounts of Crown Forex S.A. are blocked and customer withdrawals are not possible.

As I said yesterday, we will have to wait till March 23rd to know if there has been any change in FINMA’s decision or Crown Forex S.A will effectively be liquidated.

I’m truly sorry about this bad ending of the case for many of you, us FXstreet.com as well as we have pending invoices from Crown Forex that I seriously doubt we will ever cash.

Francesc

Hi everyone,

I finally was able today to speak today with a colleague at FINMA - the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority - and got an important notification about Crown Forex S.A investigation.

The decision was taken February 23rd 2009 so now Crown Forex S.A has a period of 30 days to opposite, so we can expect to have a public announcement not later than March 23rd 2009.

I’ll try to keep you all posted about this case

Francesc