Ikon Finance, Hantec Market Fraud Case
A judge in the UK high court has dismissed a breach-of-contract suit against both Ikon Finance and Hantec Markets. A heavyweight retail client was seeking $53.0 million in damages over the allegedly misappropriated funds.
Ikon Finance left the retail FX market in 2017 following regulatory restrictions by the UK Finance Conduct Authority (FCA). During that time, Hantec acquired the retail client base of IKON Finance. This was after the regulator said that the rival broker has inappropriate human and operational resources in place.
Following this, Hafez Fakhri Taji Al Farouqi, accused IKON Finance of moving his account to Hantec without his consent. He was seeking nearly $11.6 million in misappropriated funds and damages.
The Jordanian resident Farouqi also filed a lawsuit against Hantec for $42 million in civil damages. This was alleging the migration of his account took place without prior authorization.
He also claimed that both brokers secretly deducted unauthorized commission and introducer fees from his account. Furthermore, another argument was that Hantec Markets closed his account without sending cancellation terms. There was no reasonable notice, nor enough time to make alternative arrangements.
The litigation began in December last year, but after a six-month investigation, a judge acquitted both brokers. It was saying it was “fanciful” to believe they had faked trades that caused Al Farouqi to incur substantial losses.
The case was entirely dismissed because the evidence was too weak to support a conviction. It was too weak to prove that IKON and Hantec conned the Jordanian investor or breached regulations when they closed.
Hantec Market responds
In October 2019, Hantec Markets has strongly refuted all claims of Hafez. The FCA-regulated broker has fought back against each allegation.
It said it’s neither obliged to continue their relationship or to explain for what reasons it closed a client’s account. It has also denied that the retail trader had suffered any loss or damage as a result of its decisions. And that it gave him a “reasonable” nine days’ notice before the closure of his account.
After a background check, Hantec added in its defence that it did not charge any commission from Al Farouqi’s accounts.
The UK-based FX trading brand also tried to toss out the suit. It was on the grounds that the investor agreed to move his trading account. That was after he ticked a dialogue box to accept Hantec’s terms and conditions.
