This discussion is between a customer (Dan) of Easy-Forex that managed an account at Forex-Center and Yosef, an American immigrant and an account manager that was recruited by Ran Cohen to serve as an account manager at Forex center. Forex-Center was a company that started by Ran Cohen, Eli Sofer, and Eyal Nisanian, in order to manage accounts of customers through account managers, using Easy-Forex trading platform. Eli Sofer and Eyal Nisanian were the official owners of Forex-Center and received 10% on "Net Deposit" method. They made 170,000$ in 6 months, all from their customers losses.
Yosef came to Israel from American few months befoew joining the 3 meeting course that was given by Ran Cohen. Ran then convinced him and his freind, Mordechai, another immigrant from the US, to become account managers at Forex-Center. The discussion below took place in February 2007, about 6 months after Yosef lost about 50% of the money in the accounts he managed and most of his own money he brought from America to start his life in Israel. After these lose he was dismissed from his work at Forex-Center.
Dan had money in an account managed by Forex-Center but could not withdraw it because of a one year guarantee, that was given to him by Eli Sofer and Eyal Nisanian, for 90% of the money. Withdrawing the money would have mean losing the guarantee and therefore Dan became a partner at Forex-Center next to Eli Sofer and Eyal in order to make sure the money is managed properly.
Yosef: Hello
Dan: Yosef?
Yosef: Yes.
Dan: Shalom.
Yosef: Hi. Who is this?
Dan: Dan H.
Yosef: Yes. Wow, a long time. How are you?
Dan: Fine. How are you?
Yosef: Very good.
Dan: You have-
Yosef: What’s new?
Dan: You have a few seconds for me?
Yosef: Sure, of course.
Dan: I have a few questions to ask you that will take us back half a year ago. So, if you don’t mind.
Yosef: O.K.
Dan: O.K.? I will be very happy if you will be, you know, level with me on a few things, because I am a partner in, in Forex Center today. I don’t know if you know.
Yosef: I, I wasn’t aware of that.
Dan: O.K. I have become a partner there, and as time passes I learn more and more and more and a few things are bothering me. And I think that you can help me with a few answers.
Yosef: If you are thinking it will help settle your mind on other things that bother me that would be very helpful, so I can sleep at night too.
Dan: O.K. because- O.K. So let me ask you a few things. You started to manage my account 3 months after you finished the course, right? In Forex Center. Was it in Forex…, Forex Center?
Yosef: It wasn’t in Forex Center yet. It was all Ran.
Dan: I am sorry?
Yosef: There wasn’t really Forex Center yet.
Dan: O.K. Who gave the course?
Yosef: Ran.
Dan: Ran. Ran Cohen
Yosef: Right. For three days.
Dan: Yes. From Easy Forex.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: So was he also your contact person in Easy-Forex?
Yosef: Yah.
Dan: So in a way he was your mentor or guide or whatever.
Yosef: Definitely. In the beginning he was with me on every trade.
Dan: I see. O.K. I remember when we set down in, in the office-
Yosef: In Efrat, right?
Dan: No, no, no. No, no, no. In the office in Beitar.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: I think it was before I started to invest or between the two investments that I made. You were in contact with Easy Forex regarding deals you want to take.
Yosef: Right. I was in touch with the dealer room. Right.
Dan: Right. But from what I remember they- you were also looking for advice from the dealer room or from Ran or from a person in Easy Forex?
Yosef: I had an open relationship with the dealers, where I was getting kind of like a perspective on the market. You know, I- I had an open relationship where I was asking them questions and they were trying to tell me what- how they see it. It wasn’t like anything special.
Dan: O.K. O.K. Now, do you know, did Ran told you in any time what- how does he make a profit in Easy Forex?
Yosef: No. He did tell me once but he basically told me he only gets a small percentage and he was only making about 5,000 dollars a month.
Dan: O.K. What did you-
Yosef: And I was shocked because I said, well, how do you do it? And, you know, at some point I dragged it out of him that, I think, Asaf (1) was trading his personal money in their account.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: But other than that, you know, I have had a few times where I grilled him on, you know, are you making money on loses as well?
Dan: O.K.
Yosef: And he never answered the question. He would always avoid the question, because after he told me to lose like money for you, like it was our first loss. We had made 18,000 dollars for you in like 3, 4 days.
Dan: Right.
Yosef: And then what happened was, there was a huge loss because he was giving us advice. And I didn’t want to do what he wanted me to do. I said, I don’t want to lose anything for my clients, ever. And he said, you know, better than lose it, lose it now. O.K. Fine. I can understand that, but we were very much against it and he pushed.
Dan: No, but what do you mean, better to lose it now?
Yosef: So I had a suspicion that he was making money on the losses as well.
Dan: O.K. I didn’t understand what he said, better to lose now?
Yosef: Yah. His strategy was, cut your loses now, but I said, it’s not a loser. This trade is a good trade.
Dan: Oh, I see, to stop-
Yosef: So his attitude was so adamant, I didn’t understand so I got very suspicious that he was making money on loses.
Dan: So you thought the deal is going to come back. That’s what you are saying.
Yosef: Yeah.
Dan: The deal was, was going- the market was going against you but you thought that it’s going to come back and Ran told you, no, stop.
Yosef: Yes. Right.
Dan: O.K. And did the market turn back?
Yosef: It did. And we really rubbed his nose in it. I mean, we said, you know, it was really dumb. We could have made good money on that trade.
Dan: O.K. So-
Yosef: And he did, he said, look, you know, I can’t always be right. He had an answer for everything.
Dan: O.K. But you know, this is puzzling, I mean, he gave you the course on how to trade. You knew better than him that the market is going- is going to come back basically.
Yosef: Correct.
Dan: And he-
Yosef: Right That’s why Mordechai and I were so upset. Correct.
Dan: O.K. Oh, O.K.
Yosef: Correct. That’s exactly the point. We knew better than him many times and-
Dan: But this is not the case, you know. No, no, no.
Yosef: Well, he had built us up with such a sense of false confidence-
Dan: Ahhahh. Yosef: O.K.? In the beginning and everything- I mean, we were making 3 to 4,000 pounds some days. You know.
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: You know, he built us up with such a sense of false confidence that when things started going wrong and he was telling us his advice and we saw that it was coming out differently than what he said, and we were right, then we were completely confused.
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: So, you know, at that point, at that point he started pulling away from us and we were left more on our own-
Dan: After the loses took place.
Yosef: After a few loses and then I felt like, you know, I am in over my head here. Where are you? And I was on the phone with him every- the next day and he wasn’t on the market. He didn’t know what was going on with the market.
Dan: Ahaahh. Amazing.
Yosef: And I don’t know where he was getting his advice from, because they had other clients who he had, you know, made- we had, we had discussed different trades. He said, you know, this is a good trade and then we made huge loses for them. On a 5,000 dollar account we lost half the account in one day, because he was going to Pound Yen and the market did the exact opposite. So at that point Mordechai and I said, we can’t even listen to this guy anymore. We don’t even know what’s going on here. We were making money on Pound Swiss very well and now we are getting into other currencies without properly teaching us about these other currencies? And we were very overwhelmed. We didn’t understand why he is pulling back on us.
Dan: Now because it doesn’t-
Yosef: I don’t know, we didn’t fill in the blanks because we really feel like-
Dan: No, no, that’s the point. Does it shock you to know now that he was making profit from your loses? From my loses?
Yosef: It, it doesn’t shock me. I just couldn’t justify being in a working relationship and not-knowing that with him. O.K.? I am working with this guy every day, I feel with all this money and all this stress being on the market up till 3 in the morning every night and I don’t know if this guy is making- how he is making his money. And every time I grill him I get a different answer or I don’t get an answer. I was very upset by it.
Dan: So now you know.
Yosef: Is that the case? He was making money on everybody’s loses?
Dan: Yes.
Yosef: Even Asaf?
Dan: Yes. Well, I- Asaf I don’t know, but he- Asaf was a trader, he is a trader so I don’t really know about him, but- so he- because he was also making money from profits. But Ran and people in Easy Forex, the agents from Easy Forex are making money from people’s loses.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: I would even shock you even more. I mean, I learned this today from someone that if he brings someone with say 100,000 dollars-
Yosef: Right
Dan: And this guy, he gets 1.5% - O.K.? - from the money up front.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: O.K.? Now if these guys for some reason makes money so, say, 100 becomes 150 and exit, takes the money out he needs to pay back the 1.5
Yosef: That’s right from double fee.
Dan: and, and he needs to pay 1.5 times the 50K that this guy made.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: You understand what I am saying?
Yosef: So the goal is, you can’t take profits out. Keep their money in as long as possible.
Dan: No, but the point is, he needs to pay from- out of his pocket-
Yosef: Right
Dan: when people making money.
Yosef: Right. So it was- it was a disa- It wasn’t good for him that people made money.
Dan: It wasn’t good for him that people made money.
Yosef: That’s right.
Dan: Even though-
Yosef: That’s what we discovered towards the end when I suffered the way I suffered and-
Dan: He was taking advantage-
Yosef: I realized that instead of me making profit, it’s just the opposite. If I make profit he- he needs to have more deposits.
Dan: Ahha. Exactly.
Yosef: And it was a very rude awakening but I was too far in. I couldn’t get out fast enough because they already had the money in the trades.
Dan: Ahaaah, this is crazy, but-
Yosef: I was stuck in the trade.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: And it was beyond my control. They wouldn’t let me see my account.
Dan: Tell me something can you be on my side on this thing, be very, very quiet on this, don’t tell anyone that we talked. But if for some reason we’ll decide to sue Easy-Forex I would like you to testify.
Yosef: Fine.
Dan: Great.
Yosef: O.K.?
Dan: I appreciate it very much.
Yosef: You know, anything I can do to help bring this guy down. He is just destroying people’s lives.
Dan: He is not- It’s not- The point is, it’s not him only. It’s the company. The company, you know, we spoke to many other companies and we are speaking now to other companies, because we are thinking of, you know, exploring other places-
Yosef: Right. Dan: And we learn that they are the only ones that motivate that way their- their agents.
Yosef: Right. Right.
Dan: This is, this is ridiculous. This company is destroying people’s life.
Yosef: It destroyed ours.
Dan: Yah?
Yosef: Danny, I came in this country with 50,000 dollars. I got 12,000 shekels left to my name right now.
Dan: O.K.
Yosef: O.K.?
Dan: And this was also because of Easy, Easy Forex?
Yosef: Dan, Dan, he talked us up to such a sense of false confidence, you know. Are you with me? Are you with me? You are going to start talking like an account manager. I mean, all this type of language.
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: It’s crazy. We should never have been dealing with your accounts. Never.
Dan: Why? Because?
Yosef: But now I know why he taught us on your account.
Dan: Yes. O.K.
Yosef: Do you understand?
Dan: Was it he that put you on my- Y
osef: He, he is the one who decided that we go on your account.
Dan: After 3 months of training. (2)
Yosef: It’s crazy. Yes. We had to have a … Yes, we did an amazing job. But we did it on one currency with his advice.
Dan: Just to give you the confidence and bring you in and let you feel the confidence with him until you make enough-
Yosef: … bring in my rich friends.
Dan: Yes. And they make- Yosef: I mean, if I am bringing-
Dan: Yah. Then make the hit.
Yosef: That’s the whole thing. If I am doing well and then I could bring in other people. First of all, he, he, he snuffed us … O.K. He thought I had more money than I had.
Dan: Ahha. Yosef: O.K.? That was a big part of it. And then when he realized I didn’t have as much money and I was putting them on credit card he backed off.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: He got his deposits.
Dan: Your money.
Yosef: Do you realize, I was in a situation, O.K.? where I did him a Tova (favor in Hebrew) I knew he needed to get another like 20,000 short to make his quota so I put it on my credit card. Right? Because number 1, I wanted to build up the account. I was doing very well. And number 2, I figured it will help out Ran and it will come back to me. O.K.?
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: When I am in the midst of all my bad trades and I said, I want to get out. This is crazy. I have enough money to pay off my credit card and not deal with this. He said, just wait till after August 1st because the market is going to change. Well, you know, August 1st is when he gets to keep that money in his deposit.
Dan: Exactly.
Yosef: And that- and then what happened? August 3rd, right? No, before August 1st the market changed and I lost everything because I Listen to Ran and kept it for my loyalty to him. That’s how he manipulated you.
Dan: So he got the money-
Yosef: He got the money on the deposits because it was after a full month. Right? And I got all the loses and he made money on the loses.
Dan: Amazing.
Yosef: It was a double whammy.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: Right? Keep them in until after August 1st -
Dan: Because he knew-
Yosef: And if the market loses, so what!
Dan: He is going to make the money.
Yosef: It was totally set up for his direction. I had no idea that the market was going… take. But I think he did.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: I suspect it. It was complete sabotage.
Dan: O.K. Now it’s time to fight back.
Yosef: O.K.? Now, I feel bad for people like Eli and Ayal, O.K.? Because they listened to every word he said. Whenever I told Eli, don’t listen to Ran he went with Ran. Ran was much more persuasive (3).
Dan: Because he didn’t know.
Yosef: Much more persuasive than me.
Dan: They were- they were green as much as you were. I mean, you at least, you know, suspected something, but-
Yosef: I- I at least was- I at least was in the market at least to know when a trade was.
Dan: Yah. Don’t worry, Eli is eating himself now because he realized gradually what a big mistake it was, the whole thing. But he is- You know he is gradually understanding and I am helping him- helping him understand, but, but this is-
Yosef: And I feel bad for him. Out of all the people he got with all problems. Ayal didn’t deal with it.
Dan: Yah, I know. Y
osef: Listen, we are- we are Americans. We were suckered in, you know.
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: I was- I was taken advantage off. I mean a new Ole (immigrant) working for a parnasa (living). I am a young guy with lots of friends. I was Right for the picking.
Dan: Yah.
Yosef: I was ripe for the picking. You know....I am just naïve, Dan. I am not the guy to talk to about-
Dan: You are, you are exactly the guy Easy Forex needs.
Yosef: I know that.
Dan: That’s it.
Yosef: I was, I was fresh meat.
Dan: Yes.
Yosef: They saw it, snuffed it out right away.
Dan: We were, we were all fresh meat.
...
Dan: O.K. I mean, these are- Well we know, I mean, right now I am working with Ran because I am, you know, I am a partner in the Forex Center.
Yosef: Right.
Dan: But I am- I am starting to build a case, so to speak. I am trying, you know, get some evidence, I mean- We all, you know, think back all of a sudden and we discovered, hey, this- we discovered, we understand more and more how the system in Easy Forex is working. And we realize, God, these guys abused us. I mean, these guys, I mean, took our money and they manipulated us. The system is working exactly like this. I mean, that’s the goal. Y
osef: (Giggling) Ask Elli about this other account manager. I don’t even remembered his name at the time, but he was calling people to get them to put more money in the deposits. Right?
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: And then the other agent, what’s his name? Yariv that works with Ran?
Dan: Yes. Yosef: You would have thought that he would dropped this guy, this account manager because he was taking on trades that were just too big. He was using too much leverage.
Dan: Ahhahhh.
Yosef: I said to him, Eli, I said, why isn’t he dumping him? Why are you with this guy Shmuel? That’s his name, Shmuel. Why are you with this guy?
Dan: Shmuel
Yosef: He is taking people’s money and making people deposit more money, because he is stuck because he put the stock loses in the wrong place. He is using them. You know, you don’t do a 10 million- a half a million pound trade with a 5,000 dollar account.
Dan: Yeah, I mean, you are bound to see-
Yosef: Why is Yariv not dropping this guy? He is causing huge loses for people. Because he doesn’t care! The more loses the better. That is the-
Dan: Exactly. He is making money-
Yosef: That is the- Yariv is the person who you can highlight the most obvious cases with this account manager Shmuel. If you want to build a case against Ran, you look at this Uri, because he was even more obvious in how he would exploit loses than Ran.
Dan: Ahhahhh.
Yosef: Ran at least cover it up a little bit. He is smarter. Ran was smarter in how to cover it up, you know, in terms of the market. Oh, I am not on the market right now. You hear all these things. You know? He was a little bit, Ran was extremely bright. O.K.? He knew how to cover his tracks a lot better than Yariv. So if you want to expose Easy Forex listen to Yariv and this guy Shmuel and his relationship and get Shmuel on your side.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: I think you will be able to build a more obvious case, because I don’t think Yariv covered his tracks at all.
Dan: But- but you also, I mean, if you- We have the tracks you know of August, what happened in August and the manipulation around August 1st and all that. I mean, we have the, the, the data of the activity, right, in the accounts?
Yosef: I hope. I mean, I have the E-mails.
Dan: You are right
Yosef: I mean, that’s it. To piece it all together is very complicated.
Dan: What do you mean, you have- Y
osef: To build a time. To build a time line of what happened. It’s very-
Dan: But you, you have E-mails where Ran recommends you do this and do this?
Yosef: Always by phone.
Dan: Always by phone. Never by E-mail.
Yosef: Never.
Dan: You know why.
Yosef: Yah, because Easy Forex can never get caught having agents give advice for people to trade.
Dan: Right, because they are not allowed to.
Yosef: Well, to back track, you know, Eli would tell you, you know, when Danny (4) found out about this that’s when they got rid of Ran.
Dan: What do you mean, got-
Yosef: And they made him an agent. He wasn’t always an agent.
Dan: What do you mean?
Yosef: When they found out that Ran was giving us advice and we had the loses we had for you, right? And you check it out with Eli, but pitom (all of a sudden) Ran, he said, I left Easy Forex because I am dedicated to Eli and Ayal fulltime now.
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: They must have fired him to separate. Why?
Dan: Because he didn’t want-
Yosef: His uncle, Ran’s uncle sued him.
Dan: Oh, really?
Yosef: Ran has an uncle name Marius. Marius is an Israeli guy. O.K.? He have to track this guy down. O.K.?
Dan: O.K.
Yosef: O.K.? I told Ran’s uncle, we lost money for Ran’s uncle. O.K.?
Dan: Ahha. As well, O.K.
Yosef: We lost- it came to almost 10,000 dollars. Ran paid him back the money out of his pocket and he still wanted to sue Ran. Why? Because I said- I said to this, his, Ran’s uncle, I said, look, I have to tell you, you know, I am only acting on what I learn from Ran. So he asked me a direct question: Did Ran tell you to make these trades? And the answer is, truthfully, no. I made these trades. O.K.? But Ran was petrified. He said to me, you promise me that you will never tell that I gave you advice, because he is going to sue me. And I said, of course I will protect you, Ran.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: He was afraid- he was afraid that I will go, you know, turn him in.
Dan: But did Ran told you to make these deals.
Yosef: He Did tell me to make those deals.
Dan: O.K. Yosef: O.K.? But he was afraid that I was going to tell Danny (4) or somebody else in Easy Forex, I don’t know, you know, because he was worried about the questions that are going to come his way and he wanted to make sure that he locked me in. That I wasn’t going to open my mouth that he had ever given me advice about trading.
Dan: But I fail to understand. He did eventually gave you advices, though.
Yosef: When we first started, but he started distancing himself more and more.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: You know, the worst day we have ever had was when we made all that money with Pound Swiss in the middle of July it went- After the first week of July it went through 6.8 - when it breaks through 6.8 he said, you know, he even helped us make out the sheet that we- of Fax that we should give to Limor, the Chief dealer of all the trades for all the accounts.
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: O.K.? Your account was in that …
Dan: What happened in August? I mean, this was in August?
Yosef: This is before August. This like- This is the beginning of- the second- the first week in July, before the Pound Swiss really broke through.
Dan: Was he on the Pound Swiss, did he give you the notion that you should go long on the Pound Swiss or was it short? I am sorry, short?
Yosef: He said- No. He told us to go short.
Dan: Short, right? Yosef: And it completely wrong.
Dan: Yah, well.
Yosef: You remember the conversation you and I had a couple of weeks later about the other place? What is it? Matach-24 was saying that I could keep going and going? He did believe it.
Dan: But my point is that it’s not his res- He should be separated completely from the dealers, I mean, from you. I mean, once-
Yosef: He is not. He is-
Dan: Why are you talking- Why you, as, as, as account manager-
Yosef: I told you, he didn’t-
Dan: Even talk to Ran, even talk to Ran because it’s, it’s a huge- It’s 100% conflict because he is making money from your loss. I mean, how come you talk to him? How come this- I am not complaining to you because maybe you didn’t know-
Yosef: Right
Dan: he was making money from you. But-
Yosef: Right.
Dan: But how come they allow, I mean Easy Forex allow Ran to be in touch with you as, as account manager? I mean, Ran should he be in contact with Forex Center, the company-
Yosef: Right
Dan: you know, as an agent with- But to talk to-
Yosef: I asked this question once. I asked this question once. The answer I got is: If Ran is constantly teaching you and giving you courses and giving you, teaching you, everybody is going to make money.
Dan: But that’s not true. Right?
Yosef: Exactly. D
an: The truth is that he is going to make money from your loss.
Yosef: I didn’t know that. Now, once I asked Ran, I don’t want to lose money for my clients, you know, I said. So he said to me- I said, I said, are you making money from loses on clients? I asked him a direct question, in Eli’s office.
Dan: Ahhahh. Yosef: And the answer was, this is the most authentically answer I got from him was: Aren’t you making money on pips on their losses? Do you want to give those pips back? That was his answer.
Dan: The answer is yes.
Yosef: Right? The answer is, yes. I am making money from pips. So he Flipped it the other way on me: Don’t you want to give those pips back or what?
Dan: That’s not the point. I mean, you can maybe give these pips back and still make money. The point is-
Yosef: That’s right.
Dan: The point is that 100% of his income, not 100%, because he has a base of 4,000 shekels, but the extra is 100% people’s loss.
Yosef: So that’s why, that’s what he means, he wouldn’t answer the question. That was a direct question: Are you making money on people’s loses, a percentage on their loses? And he turned it on me and said: Do you want to give the money on those loses from those pips that you got back?
Dan: Ahhahh.
Yosef: He wouldn’t answer the question.
Dan: O.K. I mean we are learning gradually. I mean, your input is very helpful and once we decide, if we decide, I mean, we have to build a case and like you said, I should speak with Shmuel and to this other agent. What his name?
Yosef: Yariv.
Dan: Yariv.
Yosef: He, he, he is- he is Ran, but I don’t think he is as smart as Ran.
Dan: I see. O.K.
Yosef: But Shmuel will spill his guts.
Dan: Shmuel.
Yosef: Shmuel suffered a lot from these guys.
Dan: ...
Yosef: I remember when Shmuel came in, when the Pound Swiss broke through and all his clients, he has gone short on, just like we did. We get- He got the same advice from Ran and Yariv, as we did, to go short and how upset and furious, angry he was. He came into Eli’s office screaming and yelling. Right?
Dan: Ahha.
Yosef: And what did Ran have to do? Ran had to do damage control. Ran had to make this guy look like he is crazy, he is, you know, taking advantage of all the clients. You know, don’t listen to him. He is an example of who you should not be with. Well, who was giving the advice in getting in those positions in the first place? It- the whole Game to figure it out, between- even the agents, between Yariv and Ran how to play good cop, bad cop with the account managers...
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(1) Asaf Chasson. Asaf was a dealer at Easy-Forex that while working at Easy-Forex recruited customers from Easy-Forex customers pool to a managing account company call Shefa. Ran Cohen and other agent of Easy-Forex also recruited customers for him. He lost 90% of his customers money in a period of 3 weeks.
(2) 3 months is not exactly the problem. The problem is that Ran didn’t tell him he (Ran) is making money from his losses.
(3) This is what we all thought of Eli and Eyal before we learned they made 170,000$ out of their customers losses and never said anything about it to anyone.
(4) Danny Darbash, Head of customers at Easy-Forex and also in-charge of Easy Forex agents. | 
