CFTC Bars Eight Americans for Selling Offshore Forex Trading to US Retail Clients

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has barred eight Americans for two years for soliciting US retail traders on behalf of unregistered offshore brokers, according to orders issued on Monday. Each respondent settled without admitting the findings.

The orders target the individuals who sold the products of white-label service providers. In June, Netrios LP Ltd. and Red Acre Ltd. agreed to pay $2.5 million for the white-label service behind those brokers.

The eight co-owned brokers built on that service. They owe $650,000 between them, all of it to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CFTC imposed no penalty of its own; its orders recognize the amount each respondent owes the SEC, require them to stop the conduct, and bar them from registering with the agency or working for any registrant for two years.

The CFTC releases do not name the brokers, but SEC orders against seven of the eight, dated September 30, identify the brands and deposit figures. KOT4X, incorporated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and active from 2019 to 2025, was the largest, with customers depositing about $296 million, according to the SEC. Its co-owners, Quillan Black and Anthony Tyler Williams, owe $125,000 each. The SEC described Black as a social media influencer known online as "Cue Banks."

Prosperity LLC, run by Michael Talento, Jordan Taylor Morgan and Michael Levi Peters, took in about $35 million; each of the three owes $65,000. Envi LLC, owned by Tyler Evan MacKechnie, drew $34 million, with an $85,000 penalty. FxSway LLC, co-owned by Lewis Matthew Neal, drew $26 million, and Neal owes $60,000. Across the four brands, deposits came to about $391 million, against $590,000 in penalties for their seven owners. The eighth, Christopher Williams of Dubai, owes $60,000.

According to the SEC, the owners bought almost everything from white-label providers, including the website, contracts for difference (CFDs), back-office systems, a sublicensed trading app, pricing, liquidity, custody and customer checks. In MacKechnie's case, the CFTC said Netrios also introduced him to other service providers needed to set up the firm. Customers funded accounts in bitcoin or other crypto assets held in a margin account by the providers. The brands earned a share of commissions and swap fees, and most trading was in forex, alongside metals, crypto, stock indices and single stocks, the SEC said.

The two agencies split the case because of the products: forex, metals and crypto trades fall under the CFTC, while CFDs on single stocks count as security-based swaps, bringing in the SEC. KOT4X offered such CFDs on 37 US and European shares.

The SEC orders also bar the respondents from the securities industry, with a right to apply for reentry after two years. KOT4X is no longer in operation, the SEC said.