Thread by @ianbeckett

@ArmitageJim @premnsikka 1/ @TheFCA yet again in a short space of days released y/day yet another of its “saved up” press releases allowing it to waft its “extra special tickling stick”, censuring the notorious #PremierFX Ltd fca.org.uk/news/press-rel…. In contrast to the ...

2/ hyperbole of the FCA, @SkyNews reported on the Premier Fx scandal in 2019 - a damning indictment of the FCA, asleep at the wheel while yet another of its nefarious made men/women from its #emoney/#API cesspit (notorious for fraud + #MoneyLaundering) operated unfettered + ...

3/ without fear. Premier FX had opened the “regulatory catflap” + appointed 2 A.R.’s - an online payment gateway “Alacrity Payments Ltd” & “Securus Escrow Ltd”(which did who knows what - controlled by an insurance consultant). The FCA hasn’t the first clue who it’s A.R’s are ..

4/ or what they do ... so much so that they only noticed in 01/2021 that both A.R.’s had been dissolved/struck off in 2017/2019 respectively. The damning 2019 @SkyNews article reported that in 2017 the Bank of Portugal had fined PremierFX for operating outside of its licence.

5/ The FCA continued to slumber + despite PremierFX reporting this fine to the FCA, the FCA simply ignored this red flag + renewed Premier FX’s licence the following year. Yet again we saw the “Halo Effect” of the FCA authorised “sticker” tricking consumers in to depositing ...

6/ funds with the FCA’s made men/women, the victims thinking they were @FSCS protected. The Premier FX administrator’s proposal (scribd.com/document/49614…) provides grisly reading + makes it clear that far worse things were taking place while the FCA slumbered including

7/ unauthorised services taking place eg deposit taking, FX derivatives (eg forward contracts), prepaid FX payment cards, operating a non “face to face” #emoney service etc. Astonishingly if the FCA had even bothered looking at Premier FX’s website before reauthorising them ...

8/ they would have seen all of this - another red flag ignored by the FCA on top of the red flag of ignoring the notification of Premier FX’s Portuguese regulatory fine. Most of Dame Gloster’s scathing critique of the FCA re: #LCF scandal standard.co.uk/business/dame-… would ...

9/ equally apply in the case of Premier FX. The far bigger issue here is that Premier FX is not unique, the FCA’s #emoney/#API scene is a cesspit of global money laundering + fraud facilitation. If the #WolfofSophia’s use of the FCA’s #Emoney/#API scene wasn’t enough to ...

https://twitter.com/ianbeckett/status/1358513884047491073

10/10 wake the FCA from its slumber, Rachel Walcott (Sr. Editor Reuters Regulatory Intelligence) wrote in mid 2020 that “E-Money firms are a scandal waiting to happen” referencing the Premier FX scandal. corlytics.com/news-releases/…. Meanwhile the FCA sleep.