AGM Markets was not a quiet boutique broker that “had a bad year”. In February 2020 the Federal Court of Australia found that AGM Markets Pty Ltd and former authorised representatives OT Markets and Ozifin had engaged in systemic unconscionable conduct selling over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives to retail clients. In October 2020 the same court ordered about A$75 million in penalties (A$35 million for AGM, A$20 million each for the two representatives), after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) case. ASIC’s release also notes roughly A$32 million in client trading losses and refund orders for around 10,000 former clients while the firms sat in liquidation.
The sales pattern the court described is the one victims still recognise on clones: offshore account managers pushing deposits, soft-pedalling risk, and treating the book as a place to extract volume rather than a market for the client. ASIC had already cancelled AGM’s Australian financial services licence in November 2018 and earlier warned the public away from the brands.
The name did not vanish overnight. On the Cyprus side, Maxigrid Ltd (previously linked in regulator materials to AGM Markets / Dualix branding) had its Cyprus Investment Firm authorisation suspended in October 2021 and withdrawn in February 2022 by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) over client-fund safeguarding failures; an Investor Compensation Fund process followed. Clone domains and lookalike “AGM” labels have also drawn warnings from other supervisors over the years.
If a cold caller still waves an AGM Markets, Dualix or Maxigrid story, start with the ASIC judgment and CySEC withdrawal notices — not with a new Telegram “desk manager”.
Funds stuck or already lost: Get help. Paid “regulator recovery” after a CFD kitchen: Fake recovery.
This article is for general information only. It is not legal or financial advice. Details change. If you have lost money, contact your bank or card issuer and use the routes on the help pages.