Last week we reported on the peculiar story of QuadrigaCX. Following the recent death of their CEO Gerald Cotton, the Canadian crypto exchange claimed they were unable to access the accounts holding more than $180 million in virtual currencies belonging to their clients because nobody - other than Mr Cotton – knew the passwords.
Since then reports have started to surface alleging links between QuadrigaCX and Valoris, a Hong Kong company who, it has long been believed, accept deposits from binary option scammers.
The accusations initially appeared via the Spoofy McSpoofface Twitter account. Their feed reported an as yet unnamed QuadrigaCX user said the exchange had emailed telling him he needed to wire his deposits to a bank account owned by Valoris HK Ltd. and supported their claims with a screenshot of the email from Reddit.
Quadriga responded admitting Crypto Capital (the international payments company they used) had sent the email before adding that the instructions were only to help clients make a deposit into their own account because Canadian banks don’t allow Bitcoin companies to hold bank accounts. QuadrigaCX also admitted they did have a business relationship with Valoris.
Spoofy McSpoofface jumped on this. They immediately posted an article from 2017 in which the Times of Israel had reported a Canadian investor lost everything in a binary options scam after he’d deposited $134,000 into a bank account owned by Valoris HK Ltd.
In the article the journalist mentioned that the account “has been used to accept payments for TD Markets – a Binary Options and forex trading site – as well as QuadrigaCX” but as Quadriga haven’t filed an audit since 2015 the claims could not be verified.
Seeing binary options return to the headlines concerns us, especially as we have had extensive first-hand experience of helping clients try to recover the money they had lost through binary options scams. We picked up on the threat in 2016 and reported how Israeli authorities planned to tackle the scammers operating from Israel.
Our coverage was quickly followed by reports in highly respected publications including The Independent and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, both of which highlight the part our firm and, more specifically, our partner Richard Howlett has played in tackling the threats posed by binary options scams.
Of course the link between simply be a coincidence but given the confusion already surrounding Quadriga, it is not likely to offer its customers any comfort as they seek to recover the money they’re owed. In fact it is more likely to add fuel to the myriad of conspiracy theories that continue to surround the controversial exchange.
If you have been the victim of a binary options scam or any other type of digital, Bitcoin or cryptocurrency fraud, please call us today on 0207 792 5649 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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