Envi FX

A summary of what happened?

Envi FX is an online trading platform established in 2020, offering access to various financial instruments, including forex, cryptocurrencies, metals, indices, stocks, and commodities. Operating under the STP/ECN execution model, the broker utilizes the MetaTrader 4 and MetaTrader 5 platforms, which are industry standards for many CFD brokers.

Major Concerns and Complaints:

1. Lack of Regulation:
   • Envi FX is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a jurisdiction known for its lenient regulatory oversight. The broker claims authorization by the MWALI International Services Authority; however, this regulator is considered less stringent compared to mainstream financial regulators like CySEC or the FCA. This lack of robust regulation raises concerns about the safety and security of client funds.
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2. High Leverage and Associated Risks:
   • The broker offers leverage up to 1:500, a level significantly higher than what reputable regulators typically permit for retail traders. Such high leverage can amplify potential profits but also increases the risk of substantial losses, especially for inexperienced traders.
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3. Opaque Fee Structures:
   • Some reviews indicate that Envi FX lacks transparency regarding its fee structures, including minimum deposit requirements and trading conditions. This opacity can lead to unexpected costs for traders and complicates the process of making informed investment decisions.
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4. Offshore Registration Concerns:
   • Being registered offshore, Envi FX operates in a regulatory gray area, which can pose significant risks to traders. Offshore brokers may lack accountability, making it challenging for clients to seek recourse in cases of disputes or financial misconduct.
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5. Mixed User Reviews:
   • User feedback on platforms like Myfxbook presents a mixed picture. While some traders appreciate the platform’s user-friendliness and support for Expert Advisors, others express concerns over high commissions and wide spreads, particularly on instruments like BTCUSD.
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Envi FX offers a range of trading instruments and utilizes popular trading platforms, which may appeal to certain traders. However, the broker’s lack of stringent regulatory oversight, high leverage offerings, and opaque fee structures present notable risks. Potential clients should exercise caution, conduct thorough due diligence, and consider these factors carefully before engaging with Envi FX.

Analyzing the Fake Copyright Notice(s)

Our team collects and analyses fraudulent copyright takedown requests, legal complaints, and other efforts to remove critical information from the internet. Through our investigative reporting, we examine the prevalence and operation of an organized censorship industry, predominantly funded by criminal entities, oligarchs, and disreputable businesses or individuals. Our findings allow internet users to gain insight into these censorship schemes’ sources, methods, and underlying objectives.

What was Envi FX trying to hide?

Envi FX‘s attempts to hide unfavourable content through the misuse of copyright notices while allegedly engaging in perjury present serious legal concerns. These actions suggest a calculated attempt to manipulate legal systems to suppress free speech, a fundamental violation of copyright law principles and an abuse of legal processes. The use of such tactics not only undermines the integrity of copyright protection but also potentially constitutes perjury, further entangling Envi FX in legal accountability. Let’s examine the information Envi FX may be trying to remove from the internet –

Investigative Report: Envi FX – Allegations, Complaints, and Risks

Envi FX, an online trading platform launched in 2020, offers retail and professional traders access to a wide range of financial instruments, including forex, cryptocurrencies, stocks, indices, commodities, and metals. Operating under the STP/ECN execution model, it provides services through MetaTrader 4 (MT4) and MetaTrader 5 (MT5), which are industry-standard platforms. However, the broker has attracted significant criticism, particularly regarding its regulatory status, operational transparency, and risk exposure. This report examines the concerns, complaints, and allegations against Envi FX to provide an in-depth perspective on its operations and reputation.

1. Overview of Envi FX

A. Core Features

• Financial Instruments: Envi FX offers trading on forex pairs, cryptocurrencies, commodities, indices, and stocks.
• Trading Platforms: MT4 and MT5 are supported, catering to traders using manual strategies and Expert Advisors (EAs).
• Leverage: The platform offers leverage up to 1:500, appealing to traders seeking high-profit potential but increasing risk exposure.

B. Market Position

• Envi FX markets itself as a trader-centric broker, emphasizing low-latency execution and compatibility with automated trading systems.
• Despite this positioning, numerous concerns regarding its regulatory status, business practices, and customer treatment persist.

2. Major Concerns and Allegations

A. Lack of Regulatory Oversight

1. Offshore Registration:
   • Envi FX is registered in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a jurisdiction known for lenient regulatory oversight. Offshore brokers in such jurisdictions are not required to adhere to the strict financial safeguards imposed by Tier-1 regulators (e.g., FCA, ASIC, CySEC).
   • Envi FX claims authorization by the MWALI International Services Authority, which is considered a low-tier regulatory entity with limited enforcement capabilities.
2. Investor Protection Risks:
   • Traders engaging with unregulated brokers face higher risks, as offshore jurisdictions often lack robust mechanisms for dispute resolution and fund recovery.
   • Envi FX does not offer negative balance protection or segregated client accounts, leaving clients vulnerable in volatile market conditions.

B. Transparency Issues

1. Fee and Cost Structures:
   • Envi FX has been criticized for a lack of transparency in its fee structure. While it markets itself as a cost-effective broker, complaints highlight:
     • High spreads: Particularly on cryptocurrencies like BTCUSD, where spreads have been described as uncompetitive compared to industry standards.
     • Hidden commissions: Traders report unexpected charges that are not clearly disclosed in the broker’s terms and conditions.
2. Ambiguous Operational Practices:
   • Some users have raised concerns about the lack of detailed information regarding trade execution policies and liquidity providers.
   • Claims of potential conflicts of interest arise from the absence of proof that Envi FX does not operate as a market maker, which could lead to a situation where the broker profits from client losses.

C. Risk Amplification Through High Leverage

• Leverage of 1:500:
  • While high leverage can enhance profit potential, it also significantly magnifies risks, especially for inexperienced traders.
  • Regulators like the FCA and ESMA impose leverage caps (e.g., 1:30 for retail clients) to protect investors, a practice not followed by Envi FX.
• Impact on Clients:
  • High leverage offerings often attract inexperienced traders who may not fully understand the risks involved, leading to significant financial losses.

D. Mixed User Reviews

1. Positive Feedback:
   • Some traders appreciate Envi FX for its compatibility with automated trading systems and low-latency execution.
   • The platform’s MT5 integration appeals to advanced traders looking for technical and algorithmic trading capabilities.
2. Negative Reviews:
   • A recurring theme in user feedback involves difficulties with withdrawals, where clients report delayed or denied access to their funds.
   • Complaints about poor customer support are widespread, with users describing unresponsive or dismissive interactions when resolving issues.

3. Allegations of Misconduct

A. Concerns About Misrepresentation

• Envi FX advertises itself as a trader-friendly platform but fails to provide evidence supporting its claims of transparency, reliability, and competitive pricing.
• Allegations suggest that the broker’s marketing focuses on attracting inexperienced traders while downplaying risks associated with its high leverage offerings and offshore registration.

B. Potential for Market Manipulation

• Some clients have accused Envi FX of price manipulation, including:
  • Sudden and unexplained spread widening during volatile market conditions.
  • Stop-loss hunting, where client trades are allegedly closed prematurely due to price spikes engineered by the broker.

C. Inadequate Safeguards

• Envi FX does not provide negative balance protection, which can result in traders owing the broker money in extreme market conditions.
• The lack of an independent dispute resolution mechanism further disadvantages clients in cases of contested transactions.

4. Legal and Regulatory Context

A. Offshore Brokers in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has become a hub for unregulated brokers due to its lack of stringent oversight.
• Brokers registered in this jurisdiction are not required to adhere to international best practices, such as segregating client funds or undergoing regular audits.

B. Risk of Scams and Fraud

• Regulatory bodies in developed financial markets, including the FCA and ASIC, warn investors about the risks of engaging with offshore brokers.
• While Envi FX has not faced formal sanctions or lawsuits as of this report, its offshore status places it in a high-risk category.

5. Broader Implications for Traders

A. Financial Risks

• Traders risk significant financial losses due to high leverage, lack of regulatory oversight, and potential misconduct by the broker.
• The absence of negative balance protection means clients could lose more than their initial investment.

B. Limited Recourse for Disputes

• Offshore brokers often operate with impunity, leaving clients with few options for recovering lost funds or contesting unfair practices.

C. Reputational Risks for the Industry

• Brokers like Envi FX contribute to the negative perception of forex and CFD trading platforms, undermining trust in the broader financial trading industry.

6. Recommendations for Traders

A. Conduct Thorough Due Diligence

1. Verify the broker’s regulatory credentials with reputable agencies.
2. Review the broker’s terms and conditions, focusing on fees, withdrawal policies, and risk disclosures.

B. Avoid High-Leverage Offers

1. Opt for brokers offering leverage levels in line with regulatory standards to minimize risk exposure.
2. Ensure the broker provides adequate risk management tools, such as negative balance protection.

C. Prioritize Regulated Brokers

• Choose brokers licensed by Tier-1 regulators, such as the FCA (UK), ASIC (Australia), or CySEC (Cyprus), which enforce strict compliance and client protection standards.

7. Conclusion: A Broker with Risks and Concerns

While Envi FX offers a diverse range of trading instruments and access to industry-standard platforms, its lack of robust regulatory oversight, high leverage offerings, and allegations of non-transparent practices present significant risks for traders.

Key Takeaways:

1. Lack of Regulation: Operating under an offshore jurisdiction, Envi FX provides minimal investor protection.
2. Transparency Issues: Complaints about unclear fees, potential price manipulation, and withdrawal difficulties highlight operational risks.
3. High Risk for Inexperienced Traders: The combination of high leverage and inadequate safeguards makes Envi FX unsuitable for novice investors.

Final Word:

Potential clients should exercise extreme caution when considering Envi FX as a trading platform. Alternative brokers with stronger regulatory credentials and a proven track record of transparency may provide safer and more reliable options for traders.

How do we counteract this malpractice?

Once we ascertain the involvement of Envi FX (or actors working on behalf of Envi FX), we will inform Envi FX of our findings via Electronic Mail.

Our preliminary assessment suggests that Envi FX may have engaged a third-party reputation management agency or expert, which, either independently or under direct authorization from Envi FX, initiated efforts to remove adverse online content, including potentially fraudulent DMCA takedown requests. We will extend an opportunity to Envi FX to provide details regarding their communications with the agency or expert, as well as the identification of the individual(s) responsible for executing these false DMCA notices.

Failure to respond in a timely manner will necessitate a reassessment of our initial assumptions. In such an event, we will be compelled to take appropriate legal action to rectify the unlawful conduct and take the following steps –

Since Envi FX made such efforts to hide something online, it seems fit to ensure that this article and sensitive information targeted online by these events get a lot more exposure and traffic than what it would have received originally

We hope this becomes an excellent case study for the Streisand effect…The key idea behind the Streisand effect is that efforts to restrict information can backfire, often causing the information to gain more attention than it would have otherwise. This effect is widespread in the digital age, where users quickly notice and spread censorship efforts on social media and other platforms. Trying to suppress something can unintentionally lead to it becoming more visible, which Envi FX is finding out the hard way.

Potential Consequences for Envi FX

Under Florida Statute 831.01, the crime of Forgery is committed when a person falsifies, alters, counterfeits, or forges a document that carries “legal efficacy” with the intent to injure or defraud another person or entity.

Forging a document is considered a white-collar crime. It involves altering, changing, or modifying a document to deceive another person. It can also include passing along copies of documents that are known to be false. In many states in the US, falsifying a document is a crime punishable as a felony.

Additionally, under most laws, “fraud on the court” is where “a party has sentiently set in motion some unconscionable scheme calculated to interfere with the judicial system’s ability impartially to adjudicate a matter by improperly influencing the trier of fact or unfairly hampering the presentation of the opposing party’s claim or defense.”  Cox v. Burke, 706 So. 2d 43, 46 (Fla. 5th DCA 1998) (quoting Aoude v. Mobil Oil Corp., 892 F.2d 1115, 1118 (1st Cir. 1989)).

Is Envi FX Committing a Cyber Crime?

Yes, it seems so. Envi FX used multiple approaches to remove unwanted material from review sites and Google’s search results. Thanks to protections allowing freedom of speech in the United States, there are very few legal ways to do this. Envi FX could not eliminate negative reviews or search results that linked to them without a valid claim of defamation, copyright infringement, or some other clear breach of the law.

Faced with these limitations, some companies like Envi FX have gone to extreme lengths to fraudulently claim copyright ownership over a negative review in the hopes of taking it down.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. Envi FX is certainly keeping interesting company here….

The DMCA takedown process requires that copyright owners submit a takedown notice to an ISP identifying the allegedly infringing content and declaring, under penalty of perjury, that they have a good faith belief that the content is infringing. The ISP must then promptly remove or disable access to the content. The alleged infringer can then submit a counter-notice, and if the copyright owner does not take legal action within 10 to 14 days, the ISP can restore the content.

Since these platforms are predominantly based in the U.S., the complaints are typically made under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which requires online service providers and platforms to react immediately to reports or violations. Big Tech companies rarely have systems in place to assess the merit of each report. Instead, all bad actors need to do is clone a story, backdate it, and then demand the real thing be taken down.

Reputation Agency's Modus Operandi

The fake DMCA notices we found always use the “back-dated article” technique. With this technique, the wrongful notice sender (or copier) creates a copy of a “true original” article and back-dates it, creating a “fake original” article (a copy of the true original) that, at first glance, appears to have been published before the true original.

Then, based on the claim that this backdated article is the “original,” the scammers send a DMCA to the relevant online service providers (e.g. Google), alleging that the ‘true’ original is the copied or “infringing” article and that the copied article is the “original,” requesting the takedown of the ‘true’ original article. After sending the DMCA request, the person who sent the wrong notice takes down the fake original URL, likely to make sure that the article doesn’t stay online in any way. If the takedown notice is successful, the disappearance from the internet of information is most likely to be legitimate speech.

As an integral part of this scheme, the ‘reputation management’ company hired by Envi FX creates a website that purports to be a ‘news’ site. This site is designed to look legitimate at a glance, but any degree of scrutiny reveals it as the charade it is.

The company copies the ‘negative’ content and posts it “on the fake ‘news’ site, attributing it to a separate author,” then gives it “a false publication date on the ‘news’ website that predated the original publication.

The reputation company then sent Google a Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice claiming the original website infringed copyright. After a cursory examination of the fake news site, Google frequently accepts the notice and delists the content.

In committing numerous offences, Envi FX either premeditated actions or were unaware of the consequences. Despite hiring an agency to make Google disregard any negative information about Envi FX, ignorance does not excuse this wrongdoing.

Fake DMCA notices have targeted articles highlighting the criminal activity of prominent people to hide their illegal behavior. These people, which include US, Russian, and Khazakstani politicians as well as members from elite circles including the mafia and those with massive financial power, are all connected – and alleged corruption ranging from child abuse to sexual harassment is exposed when exploring evidence found at these URLs. It appears there’s a disturbing level of influence being exerted here that needs further investigation before justice can be served. FSMSmart is certainly keeping interesting company here.

The Reputation Laundering

Rogue Reputation agencies use spurious copyright claims and fake legal notices to remove and obscure articles linking clients to allegations of tax avoidance, corruption, and drug trafficking. Most of these reputation agencies are based offshore, mainly in Russia, India, and Eastern Europe, and they do not worry about complying with US-based laws.

The content in all of the articles for which the fraudulent DMCA notices have been sent relates to allegations of criminal allegations, including corruption, child abuse, sexual harassment, human trafficking and financial fraud against businesses and individuals with ultra-high net worth.

In addition to the misuse of the DMCA takedown process, there is a notable absence of enforcement concerning perjury violations. The statutory requirement related to perjury is designed to deter copyright holders from submitting fraudulent or knowingly false takedown requests, as they may face legal consequences for making false declarations under penalty of perjury. However, to date, there have been no known instances of any individual being prosecuted for perjury in connection with the submission of false DMCA takedown notices.

This lack of enforcement has emboldened copyright holders to exploit the DMCA takedown process to suppress dissent, criticism, or other unfavorable content, without fear of legal repercussions.

Some of the people and businesses who have employed this tactic to remove legitimate content from Google illegally include a Spanish businessman-turned-cocaine-trafficker, Organised crime, an Israeli-Argentine banker accused of laundering money for Hugo Chávez’s regime, a French “responsible” mining company accused of tax evasion, child molesters and sexual predators. Envi FX is in great company ….

What else is Envi FX hiding?

We encourage you to ‘Dork‘ Google by searching for keyword combinations such as [Envi FX] + {Negative Keyword, such as Scam, Fraud, Complaints, Lawsuit, Sanction, etc} on Google. It’s likely if you scroll down to the bottom of this Google search results, you’ll stumble upon this Legal Takedown notice (pictured below)

To make such an investigation possible, we encourage more online service providers to come forward and share copies of content removal requests with industry experts and researchers. If you have any information on Envi FX that you want to share with experts and journalists, kindly email the author directly at [email protected].

All communications are strictly confidential and safeguarded under a comprehensive Whistleblower Policy, ensuring full protection and anonymity for individuals who provide information.