The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has brought charges against nine individuals relating to an unauthorised foreign exchange trading scheme promoted on social media.

One individual, Emmanuel Nwanze, has been charged with running an unauthorised investment scheme and issuing unauthorised financial promotions.

The regulator has alleged that between May 2018 and April 2021, Nwanze, along with Holly Thompson, used an Instagram account, @holly_fxtrends, to provide advice on buying and selling contracts for difference (CFDs) when they were not authorised to do so.

CFDs are high-risk investment products used to bet on the price of an asset, in this case the price of foreign currencies.

The FCA has also alleged that Nwanze paid seven individuals – Biggs Chris, Jamie Clayton, Lauren Goodger, Rebecca Gormley, Yazmin Oukhellou, Scott Timlin and Eva Zapico – to promote the @holly_fxtrends Instagram account to millions of Instagram followers.

These seven individuals are each facing one count of issuing unauthorised communications of financial promotions.

Director of personal finance at AJ Bell, Laura Suter, commented:

“Too many people blindly trust anything they see on social media, but throw in a well-known celeb or a reality TV star endorsing a product and people are even more likely to trust a post.

“The regulator had already fired the warning shot to so-called ‘finfluencers’, telling them that they were cracking down on misleading social media posts. While the FCA didn’t introduce any new rules or penalties for those who post misleading content, it tweaked the guidance to give more examples of when social media posts will be compliant or not.

“But now it’s clearly ramping up its campaign to keep finfluencers in line – this high-profile case no doubt intended to send a message to other influencers. With a maximum penalty of up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine for breaking the rules, there’s no doubt it will make people sit up and listen.”

The defendants will appear before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 13 June.

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