By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
Since the unfortunate shut down 1Broker’s laweys have granted the company permission to restore a read-only version of its website that will allow investors to finally ensure that their funds are safe.
Hardly one could tell that the last couple of weeks was very successful for the Marshall Islands-registered company 1Broker that has recently got under the multiple fire from two most honorable U.S. legislative bodies in the field of financial security.
As previously reported by Coinspeaker, Bitcoin futures firm 1Broker also known as 1pool Ltd. has been facing charges of wire fraud and money laundry. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued similar statements alleging that 1Broker has been operating as an unregistered securities dealer and futures commission merchant, thus violating federal law by allowing the U.S. investors to trade on its platform.
Notable that the complaints do not end here. Further the company got under the direct supervision of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that has been suspecting 1Broker to ignore the established KYC policy.
It did not take long to prove the theory as the FBI undercover special agent has successfully purchased several security-based swaps on 1Broker’s platform from the U.S. regadless of not meeting with the discretionary investment thresholds required by the federal securities laws. The agency explained:
“Investors could open accounts by simply providing an email address and a user name – no additional information was required – and could only fund their account using Bitcoins.”
As the result FBI seized the official domain of 1Broker, disallowing global consumers from accessing what the service has to offer. Despite what it’s naysayers keep pedaling about it, 1Broker has rapidly gained the ground it has lost immediately seeking legal counsel and support in a bid to solve this issue, which crippled the business to its core.
The other day 1Broker updated its official Twitter profile with positive news outlining that the startup is now engaging with the unnamed US-based counsel, who will represent the firm in the ongoing SEC and CFTC cases.
So far the 1Broker’s lawyers have received the go-ahead to restore a read-only version of its website, which will allow investors to finally view their balances and transaction history to ensure that their funds are safe. The post also reveals that the site will be available for a couple of days, stressing:
“Currently, our top priority is to allow customer withdrawals. The company holds enough funds to cover all withdrawal requests, of course. Before we can take the required steps to do that, we have to seek permission from the authorities.If approved by the SEC, we will enable withdrawals for US customers as soon as possible.”
Nevertheless there are rumors going around the cryptocurrency circles noting that the SEC is likely to seek a permanent injunction against the company and the CEO. That, in turn, could spell the end for the platform, although it remains to be seen how things will play out.