Risk scorecard
Each area is scored 0 (clean) to 10 (worst). Higher means more risk.
Regulation
10/10 · CriticalNo licence from any regulator while holding client deposits, plus a United States federal court order imposing permanent trading, solicitation and registration bans and a $374,864 penalty.
Identity & transparency
9/10 · CriticalThe live site names no company, no address and no officers; historically the only disclosure was a mass registered-agent address in Kingstown alongside an unexplained London address and UK telephone number.
Withdrawals & conduct
8/10 · CriticalFour separate people across two platforms describe money they could not retrieve, with amounts and dates, and the client area and withdrawal page have now been removed entirely; some earlier payouts did complete and two complaints were resolved.
Reputation
8/10 · Critical2.1 out of 5 from 10 Trustpilot reviews with 70% at one star, 2.66 out of 5 from 56 reviews on a forex review platform that also recorded a flood of suspicious positive reviews in early 2019, and extensive trade-press coverage of the enforcement action.
Website claims
9/10 · CriticalStill calls itself a broker you can trust with a spotless reputation and urges a $1,200 deposit for a 100% bonus, while publishing testimonials of $12,540 profit on a $1,500 account in one week and offering no entity, no terms and no account system.
Operational history
5/10 · ModerateA verified twelve-year history credits against a fresh shell, but that history runs through a seized domain, a deregistered affiliate company and a platform that stopped serving clients in February 2026.
Who they are
A quick desk file on the company behind the brand.
- Brand: PaxForex.
- Legal entity: Laino Group Limited, an International Business Company of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, number 21973 IBC 2014. A same-named Australian company, RAGUSA LAINO GROUP PTY LTD (ACN 602 442 446), was registered on 21 October 2014 and deregistered on 5 September 2024.
- Registered: Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, Beachmont, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The operation also published a London address at York Street 78, W1H 1DP and a +44 203 504 0303 telephone number.
- Website: paxforex.org. The original address, paxforex.com, has been under United States government seizure since 28 September 2020.
- Only licence: none. No financial regulator anywhere lists this firm, and the company never claimed one.
- Offers (while it operated): MetaTrader 4 forex, stocks, indices, spot metals and a few cryptocurrencies, leverage to 1:500, minimum deposits from $10, a stackable 100% deposit bonus and an affiliate programme paying up to 80% revenue share.
- Not accepted: the site's final terms excluded Iraq, Syria, North Korea and United States citizens.
- Age claim: the footer dated the brand to 2011. That is broadly supported: paxforex.com was registered on 7 January 2011 and paxforex.org on 16 May 2014.
- Status today: no account opening, no login, no deposit or withdrawal function, no published entity and no legal documents.
Regulation
Who really oversees this broker, and what each licence is worth to you.
Proof of regulation on an official register: No
We could not confirm this broker on any genuine regulator’s register.
Licences the broker publishes
Financial Services Authority, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Why we reached this verdict
How the evidence adds up.
Five findings carry this verdict, and the first two are matters of public record rather than opinion.
- A federal court permanently banned the operator. The CFTC sued Laino Group Limited, doing business as PaxForex, on 28 September 2020 for offering leveraged retail transactions in ether, litecoin, bitcoin, gold and silver to United States customers without registering as a futures commission merchant. The company did not defend the case. On 30 June 2021 Judge David Hittner entered a default judgment imposing permanent trading, solicitation and registration bans and a $374,864 civil penalty.
- The original website was seized by United States law enforcement. paxforex.com was taken on 28 September 2020 and today still returns a government seizure banner. Its registry record shows the government's seizure name servers and registry-level delete, transfer and update locks. The operation simply moved the same brand and the same copy to paxforex.org and carried on for a further five years, adding a United States exclusion to its terms.
- No regulator has ever supervised this firm. A search of the Financial Services Register returns no authorised firm for either PaxForex or Laino, yet the operation published a London address and a +44 203 number and marketed in English, Russian, Portuguese and Chinese. Saint Vincent issues company registrations, not forex licences, so the number 21973 IBC 2014 carries no capital requirement, no segregation of client money, no conduct supervision and no compensation scheme.
- The platform has gone dark and clients cannot reach their balances. The last working capture of the trading site is 21 February 2026. A client wrote on 27 February 2026 that the site had vanished without notice, that support and chat were unreachable and that they had no access to their funds. That is confirmed structurally: the client area subdomain now redirects to a marketing page, and the withdrawal page, the terms of use, the privacy policy and the anti money laundering policy all return not-found. There is no wind-down notice anywhere.
- The site that remains still solicits deposits. paxforex.org today names no company, gives no address, publishes no terms and no risk warning, and carries no way to open an account, yet it still describes itself as a forex broker, promises fast deposits and withdrawals, invites readers to deposit $1,200 or more for a stackable 100% bonus, and prints testimonials claiming $12,540 of profit on a $1,500 account in one week.
On the scorecard the weighted mean of the six dimensions is 8.4 out of 10, which is 84%. Two independent items of hard evidence (the court order and the law enforcement seizure of the domain) set a floor of 90%, which is the figure published. Complaints were classified before counting: four separate people described money they could not get back, across two platforms, with amounts and dates, which meets three of the four pattern tests. A handful of separate gripes about spreads and execution were classified as service quality and did not contribute.
Evidence ledger
Every finding, with its source and how strongly it points.
E1The CFTC charged Laino Group Limited, doing business as PaxForex, on 28 September 2020 with unlawfully offering leveraged retail transactions in ether, litecoin, bitcoin, gold and silver to United States customers without registering as a futures commission merchant.
E2On 30 June 2021 the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a default judgment against Laino Group Limited d/b/a PaxForex, imposing permanent trading, solicitation and registration bans and a civil monetary penalty of $374,864.
E3paxforex.com, one of the brand's own addresses, serves a United States government seizure banner and nothing else.
Hard proofpaxforex.comE4The registry record for paxforex.com shows the domain pointed at government seizure name servers and locked at registry level against deletion, transfer and update, with the seizure dated 28 September 2020.
E5A search of the Financial Services Register for PaxForex returns no authorised firm, and a search for Laino returns none either, although the operation published a London address and a +44 203 telephone number.
E6The trading site's own footer, as it stood on 21 February 2026, disclosed only a company number (Laino Group register number 21973 IBC 2014) and a Kingstown address. No financial licence or regulator was named anywhere.
E7The brokerage apparatus has been removed: cabinet.paxforex.org and partners.paxforex.org now redirect to a marketing page, and the withdrawal page, terms of use, privacy policy, anti money laundering policy and account-opening page all return not-found.
Strongpaxforex.orgE8The site still urges visitors to deposit $1,200 or more for a stackable 100% bonus and calls PaxForex a broker you can trust, while providing no way to open an account and publishing no legal terms or risk warning.
E9The live testimonials page publishes unverifiable profit claims, including $12,540 made on a $1,500 account in one week and $660 on $2,000 from two trades.
ModeratePaxForex testimonials pageE10Trustpilot shows 2.1 out of 5 from 10 reviews with 70% at one star. A client wrote on 27 February 2026 that the website had gone without any notice, that support and chat were unreachable and that they had no access to their funds. An earlier reviewer described a trading account of 17,000 pounds that the company would not release.
E11A forex review platform rates PaxForex 2.66 out of 5 across 56 reviews, records that large numbers of fake and highly suspicious positive reviews were submitted in February and March 2019, and carries dated complaints including $3,000 the writer could not get back and a client locked out of a live account at the time of the seizure.
E12The same review platform also carries dated first-person accounts of withdrawals that completed, including profits paid the same day, an account found intact after three years of inactivity, and two complaints the writers later retracted as resolved.
E13The ASIC register shows RAGUSA LAINO GROUP PTY LTD, ACN 602 442 446, registered on 21 October 2014 and deregistered on 5 September 2024 following a voluntary deregistration application lodged in June 2024.
E14paxforex.org was registered on 16 May 2014, which matches the brand's claimed history, but the domain changed hands to a new registrar on 2 August 2026 and the site that now sits on it is a different, rebuilt installation.
E15The archive index holds no capture of a working PaxForex trading site after 21 February 2026, which matches the client account of the platform disappearing in the last days of that month.
E16The Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Financial Services Authority publishes an entity list recording company names, registration numbers, entity type, status, incorporation date and registered agent. It is a register of companies and their agents, not of licensed financial firms.
The other side
The strongest case in this broker’s favour.
The case against PaxForex is strong, but several points genuinely cut the other way and belong in the record.
- This was a real brokerage, not an empty front. It ran MetaTrader 4, it had a working client area for well over a decade, and multiple dated first-person accounts describe deposits and withdrawals that completed, including one trader who withdrew several thousand dollars of profit the same day and another who found an account untouched after three years of inactivity.
- The company answered its critics in public. Through 2019 to 2021 it posted substantive, specific replies to complaints on review platforms, including technical detail about withdrawal timings and fees. Operations that intend to vanish rarely bother.
- The court case was about registration, not theft. The CFTC charged failure to register as a futures commission merchant and unlawful off-exchange retail commodity transactions. No regulator or court has found that PaxForex stole client money, and we have seen no such finding.
- It did respond to the ban. The site's final terms excluded United States citizens, which is what a firm trying to comply with the order would do.
- The age claim holds up. Unlike most high-risk brokers, PaxForex did not inflate its history. The 2011 founding date on the footer matches the registration of paxforex.com in January 2011.
- The complaint volume is modest. Ten reviews on one platform and 56 on another, over six years, is thin for an operation claiming hundreds of thousands of customers. Two complainants later retracted after their issues were resolved.
What none of this answers is the present situation: an operation with no regulator, a permanent court ban and a seized domain has removed its client area and all of its legal documents, left no wind-down notice, and still runs copy telling strangers to deposit.
What would change this
What we would need to see to revise the verdict.
Concrete things that would move this verdict:
- A working client area at paxforex.org, or any other address, where existing clients can log in and request a withdrawal, together with evidence that those requests are being paid.
- A published wind-down notice from Laino Group Limited setting out how remaining client balances are being returned, with a named contact and a timetable.
- Evidence that the Saint Vincent entity has been placed into an orderly liquidation with an appointed liquidator handling client claims.
- A financial licence, from any genuine regulator, granted to the entity that actually holds client money, verifiable on that regulator's own register.
- Proof that the court's $374,864 penalty was paid and that the permanent bans were lifted or vacated.
- Dated, specific accounts from clients who have been paid out since February 2026. These would weigh heavily against the current reading and we would reassess.
Check it yourself
Official registers and warning lists. Verify every claim first-hand.
CFTC: federal court permanently bans PaxForex (30 June 2021)
The default judgment: permanent trading, solicitation and registration bans plus a $374,864 penalty.
CFTC: charges filed against Laino Group Limited d/b/a PaxForex (28 September 2020)
The original complaint naming the entity and the conduct.
Financial Services Register search for PaxForex
Returns no authorised firm, despite the London address and UK telephone number.
paxforex.com (original domain)
Serves a United States government seizure notice.
ASIC register entry for RAGUSA LAINO GROUP PTY LTD
The same-named Australian company, deregistered on 5 September 2024.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines FSA entity name list
The jurisdiction's company list, showing it records companies and agents rather than financial licences.
Trustpilot reviews for paxforex.com
2.1 out of 5 from 10 reviews, including the February 2026 report of lost access to funds.
PaxForex website
The marketing shell that remains, with no entity, no terms and no account system.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers about this broker’s safety.
Is PaxForex a scam?
We assess PaxForex as a scam risk at the top of our scale. A United States federal court permanently banned its operator from trading and soliciting in June 2021, United States law enforcement seized its original website in September 2020, and the trading platform has since gone dark with clients reporting no access to their money. It has never held a financial licence from any regulator.
Is PaxForex a fraud?
No court or regulator has made a finding of fraud against PaxForex, so we do not state it as a fact. What the record does show is a CFTC enforcement action, a default judgment with permanent trading and solicitation bans, a seized domain and clients who say they cannot reach their balances. On that evidence we assess the risk of fraud as high.
Is PaxForex regulated?
No. PaxForex holds no licence from any financial regulator. A search of the Financial Services Register returns nothing for either PaxForex or Laino. The only number the company ever published is 21973 IBC 2014, which is a Saint Vincent company registration, not a licence to hold or trade client money.
Can I still withdraw my money from PaxForex?
There is no working way to do so. The client area at cabinet.paxforex.org now redirects to a marketing page and the withdrawal page no longer exists. A client wrote in late February 2026 that the site had disappeared without warning and that support and chat were unreachable. If you hold a balance, document everything and speak to your bank or card issuer about a chargeback or recall.
Why does paxforex.com show a seizure notice?
The domain was seized on 28 September 2020 under a warrant issued in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, in the matter the CFTC brought against Laino Group Limited. The domain now points at United States government seizure servers and is locked at the registry so it cannot be transferred or changed.
What did the US court order against PaxForex say?
On 30 June 2021 Judge David Hittner entered a default judgment against Laino Group Limited, doing business as PaxForex. It imposed permanent trading, solicitation and registration bans, barred further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, and ordered payment of a $374,864 civil monetary penalty. The company did not appear to defend the case.
Who owns PaxForex?
The brand belongs to Laino Group Limited, an International Business Company of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, number 21973 IBC 2014, registered at Suite 305, Griffith Corporate Centre, Beachmont, Kingstown. No individual owner or director is disclosed anywhere on the company's own material. A same-named Australian company, RAGUSA LAINO GROUP PTY LTD, was deregistered in September 2024.
Is the PaxForex website still working?
paxforex.org loads, but it is no longer a brokerage. It is a rebuilt marketing site carrying the old copy, blog posts and a contact form. There is no login, no account opening, no deposit or withdrawal function, no company name, no address and no legal documents. The terms of use, privacy policy and anti money laundering policy all return not-found.
What is the Saint Vincent registration 21973 IBC 2014 worth?
Very little. It records that a company exists and names its registered agent. It carries no capital requirement, no obligation to keep client money separate from the firm's own, no conduct supervision and no compensation scheme. Any listing that presents it under a heading like Regulators is misleading: it is a company formation record, not financial regulation.
Is PaxForex a clone of another broker?
No. PaxForex does not borrow another company's name, licence number or registered address. Laino Group Limited is its own entity and the problem is the absence of any licence, not the theft of someone else's.
I lost money with PaxForex. What can I do?
Collect your account number, statements, deposit and withdrawal records, payment receipts, crypto transaction hashes and all correspondence. Ask your card issuer about a chargeback or your bank about a transfer recall. United States residents should file at ic3.gov and with the CFTC, which already holds a judgment against this operator. Everyone else should report to their national financial regulator and police fraud unit.
What should I check before depositing with any offshore broker?
Find the licence number on the broker's own site, then look it up on the regulator's own register and confirm the entity name and website match. Check whether the regulator actually supervises trading, rather than merely registering companies. Search the brand and the exact domain against regulator warning lists and enforcement pages. If the only number on offer is a company registration, there is no regulator standing behind your deposit.
Scan history
How this broker’s safety assessment has changed across scans.
What changed since October 9, 2026
- October 16, 2026CurrentConfirmed scam90% risk
- October 9, 2026Likely scam76% risk
Past scans are archived snapshots kept for transparency and are not indexed by search engines.
What we recommend
The practical takeaway from everything above.
Treat PaxForex as unsafe and do not send it money.
- Do not deposit. There is no regulator behind this operation, no legal terms on the website, no named company and no functioning account system. Money sent here has no recovery route.
- Ignore the bonus copy. The 100% deposit offer and the profit testimonials still on the site refer to a platform that no longer accepts clients.
- If you still hold a balance, gather everything now: account number, deposit and withdrawal records, payment receipts, card or bank references, crypto transaction hashes and all correspondence. Evidence gets harder to assemble as time passes.
- If you paid by card, contact your bank immediately and ask about a chargeback. If you paid by bank transfer, ask your bank to attempt a recall.
- Report it. United States residents can file with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov and with the CFTC, which already holds a judgment against this operator. Elsewhere, report to your national financial regulator and your police fraud unit.
- Refuse any offer to recover your funds for a fee. Victims of collapsed brokers are targeted a second time by recovery services that take an upfront payment and deliver nothing. No legitimate party asks for money before returning yours.
This is an independent assessment of risk, not a legal ruling. Scores and verdicts follow the Wikilix broker-safety methodology and can change as new evidence appears. Review scores are treated with caution when a broker’s reviews look manipulated. Last reviewed October 16, 2026. If any detail here is out of date or incorrect, or you represent this broker, please contact us.
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