NFA Complaint Filed Over Misleading Claims

NFA complaint filed against Forex Wizard and Mitsuaki Kataoka for delayed withdrawals and misleading regulatory claims. The US derivatives industry regulator, the National Futures Association (NFA), has filed a 16-page Complaint against Forex Wizard Inc. and its principal Mitsuaki Kataoka, accusing them of regulatory violations involving delayed withdrawals, lack of cooperation, and misleading promotional materials. The NFA alleges that the firm failed to comply with its obligations despite registering with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and holding NFA membership approval.

Forex Wizard has held NFA membership since April 2005 and operates from Nagano, Japan, while Kataoka has served as the firm’s sole associated person and principal since 2005. For years, the firm reported to NFA that it was inactive and did not manage customer funds, a status reflected in NFA’s BASIC database, which listed Forex Wizard as an “Inactive Member.” However, NFA alleges this was inconsistent with the firm’s actual activities, stating that Forex Wizard and Kataoka “have accepted customer funds and pooled them together to trade forex but are not honoring (or have delayed paying) customers’ withdrawal requests.”

NFA Complaint Filed Against Forex Wizard

NFA’s examination began in May 2025 after receiving a complaint from a Malaysian investor (Complainant 1). The investor stated that Forex Wizard collected funds under FXPOOL (or Forex POOL) and imposed a “45–60 day waiting period” for withdrawals. Despite this, Complainant 1 claimed he requested withdrawal of over ¥72,500,000 (approximately $500,000) in February 2025 and had not received the funds or any meaningful response.

The account statement provided listed the firm’s address as “1350 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York,” even though Forex Wizard had reported its location as Japan for more than a decade. NFA investigators visited the New York address but found no presence of the firm. Kataoka later told NFA that only non-US investors from Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong participated in the forex pool, so he did not report it to NFA. He admitted that the pool included around 40 participants with assets of approximately ¥245,000,000 ($1.7 million) and stated that he held the trading accounts in his personal name at non-US brokers.

NFA alleges Forex Wizard and Kataoka repeatedly failed to provide complete client lists, banking records, and explanations for financial transactions. Additional complaints followed, including one from a Japanese investor (Complainant 2) in August 2025, who said withdrawals had been suspended and involved approximately $180,000. Two more investors later contacted NFA with similar concerns. According to NFA, the firm did not respond to multiple information requests or to an exam report issued in October 2025.

Misleading Promotional Practices and Potential Penalties

The Complaint also focuses on allegedly misleading promotional materials. NFA states that websites and marketing content claimed Forex Wizard was “controlled by the CFTC and a member NFA #0317955,” highlighted a “zero record” of violations, and suggested regulatory oversight of the firm’s forex pool. Screenshots provided by investors showed statements describing Forex Wizard as a US company “registered as a trading advisor (CTA)…and qualified to act on your behalf in foreign exchange transactions.” The NFA states that such claims misled investors because the firm’s registration had remained inactive for nearly 20 years, and Kataoka asserted that the forex pool fell outside NFA jurisdiction.

Consequently, NFA has charged Forex Wizard and Kataoka with violating multiple Compliance Rules, including Rules 2-4, 2-5, and 2-29(b). The firm must respond to the Complaint within 30 days, or NFA will treat the allegations as admitted. If NFA upholds the charges, it may impose penalties including suspension or expulsion from membership, bans from association, fines up to $500,000 per violation, and cease-and-desist orders.

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