Print the value of index0
Velez Capital Managment Team Trading Extreme, Oliver Velez, Charles Vaccaro, Velez Capital Management Where is my $10,000? Why won't anyone tell me?Internet
I joined Team Trading in December 2009 with an initial deposit of $7,000 to Bank of America. Gosh, these folks could not have been more helpful telling me how to wire my money and then sending me follow ups until I actually made the wire transfer. I joined of course for the great margin, I did not take any courses, pay for any courses or even ever Follow Oliver Velez. I had never even heard of him - I just wanted the great margin and a friend of mine had been trading with Team Trading for about a year and spoke highly of them.
After being a profitable day trader for more than a year (even trading through Scottrade) I was dumbfounded when I kept being shut down while trading with Team Trading. They had a maximum loss that each trader could incur on a single day. Strange since it IS MY money. But that first month I lost a bit and then of course was not able to trade for the rest of the day to attempt to make it back. I thought to myself that maybe there was a trick to this style of trading - maybe it was not that the platform would "freeze" when I tried to exit a position and then when I called for help was put on hold for upwards of 5 minutes while sat and watched my profits tank or losses increase - WOW talk about a stressful situation. So I thought to myself there must be a trick to this, put some more money into it increase your daily loss allowance and give it another go. So in the beginning of Feb. I went to the back with all the informaiton I had from my previous wire. Imagine my surprise when my bank manager called me and told me that the wire had been returned because the account had been closed! CLOSED? Where was my money? How come no one called to tell me they were closing the account - I had money in that account! I called Team Trading and again, gosh they could not have been any nicer about helping me to get my funds into their NEW account. They explained that there had been fradulant activity in the other account but I could deposit into the new HSBC account. I confirmed with Fred Amato that I could remove these additional funds at any time as long as I left $1,000 in the account for it to remain open. He said "yes". This was important to me since now I was depositing a chunk of my trading capital into Team Trading and if I determined that this stop out rule was not working for me I needed to get my funds out and continue on with a proven method. One which I made money at - and one which was providing my only source of income for the past year.
Three weeks passed and per the noted protocol I sent Fred Amato an e-mail asking for my funds. I did not hear back, so I again sent him an e-mail 4 days later. I was told he was out of town and he was the only one that could help me with my withdrawl. Really? The ONLY one who can help with withdrawls is out of town and no one else can assist? What kind of company is that.... and then to not even get back to me. Fred Amato did contact me and then of course went back on his word that I could withdraw funds sooner than 45 days. I told him that my contract said as long as I left $1,000 in the account I could withdraw my funds. He told me he could not help me and I should contact the owners of the company for further assistance. So I attempted to call Charles Vaccaro more than 15 times, left messages for Elaine Martinez the other finance person who had been so kind to me when I was wiring money in - never heard from her again. At this point I begin to panic and contact an attorney who did a quick background check on the company and tells me that the owners Oliver Velez and Charles Vaccaro are involved in a lawsuit against each other that was established in November 2009 and that they company may be in financial hardship. WOW - So they are involved in a lawsuit and experiencing financial hardship a full 2 months before I make my initial deposit? THEN they provide me with the new account 2 months later to make yet another deposit into this sinking ship?!
At this point I go to my local HSBC branch and plead my case to the branch manager about how many times I have attempted to contact this company and how no one is returning my calls and how much money I have in the account. Out of the goodness of her heart she calls Team Trading and once the receptionist hears that it is HSBC wow was her call trasnferred quickly to a live person - Jim. The branch manager scolded him and told me how I had been trying to contact someone and asked if he could talk to me and tell me what was going on - he told her that he could not talk to me.
Shortly after that the phone lines were disconneted at Team Trading, the web-site was shut down and all access to my account information was removed. It has now been close to 6 weeks and i have yet to hear anything about my money. Oliver Velez is attempting to start a NEW company and has not addressed the more than 300 accounts that have had money STOLEN from them in a company that he is 50% owner of and Charles Vaccaro is simply gone. Someone has / spent my hard earned $10,000 - WHERE IS IT and why doesnt someone come forward and explain what happened?