ASIC has cancelled the Australian financial services licence of Prospero Markets Pty Ltd, a foreign exchange and derivatives broker now in liquidation, closing a case that began with money laundering charges against its former officers and ended in the Federal Court.
The cancellation took effect on 25 September 2024. By then the company had already lost almost everything else. Its licence had been suspended in December 2023 after it failed to lodge its audited financial accounts for that year, and on 11 April 2024, following an application by ASIC, the Federal Court ordered that the company be wound up on just and equitable grounds and appointed liquidators.
It Started With a Federal Police Operation
The regulator did not arrive at Prospero on its own. ASIC opened its investigation after an Australian Federal Police operation known as Avarus Nightwolf, which in October 2023 resulted in former officers and responsible managers of Prospero being charged with money laundering offences. Those charges related to the Changjiang Currency Exchange money remitting chain.
That is an unusually serious origin for a broker investigation. The people charged were not junior staff. They were officers and responsible managers — the individuals a licensing regime relies on to keep a firm honest. In Australia a responsible manager is the person whose competence and integrity the licence effectively rests upon.
What the Licence Allowed
Prospero had held its licence since 19 December 2012. It permitted the firm to issue and make a market in derivatives and foreign exchange contracts, to deal in those products on behalf of clients, and to give financial product advice about them, for both retail and wholesale clients. That is a full retail foreign exchange permission set, and it operated for more than a decade before the licence was suspended.
The Sequence: Suspension, Winding Up, Cancellation
The timeline reflects how layered regulatory action works in practice. The licence suspension in December 2023 was the first formal step, triggered by the missing audited accounts. The court-ordered wind-up in April 2024 was the structural end of the business. The licence cancellation in September 2024 was the final administrative closure of an entity that had ceased to exist as an operating firm.
Each step was consequential for any client still holding funds or open positions with the firm. The suspension froze the ability to onboard new clients. The liquidation appointment meant client funds passed into the hands of liquidators. The cancellation removed the last institutional infrastructure — the complaints scheme membership, the compensation cover, the client money reporting obligations.
When the Consumer Protections Were Switched Off
There is a final detail that deserves attention because it rarely gets reported. On 12 March 2025, taking account of the particular circumstances of the liquidation, ASIC varied its cancellation order to remove the requirements that Prospero remain a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, that it keep arrangements for compensating retail clients including professional indemnity insurance cover, and that it comply with the client money reporting rules.
Those three requirements are the consumer protection scaffolding that normally survives a licence cancellation, precisely so that clients still have somewhere to go. Removing them is a recognition that the company is finished and that there is no practical purpose in maintaining them. For any client still owed money, it is also the moment the ordinary avenues quietly close.
The Prospero sequence is worth remembering when assessing any broker. A licence issued in 2012 and held for eleven years told a prospective client nothing about what was happening inside the firm in 2023. The first public signal was not a regulatory warning about pricing or execution. It was a police operation, followed by a missed set of audited accounts.
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What This Means for Prospero Markets Clients
Prospero is a reminder that the most serious problems at a forex broker often surface somewhere other than the trading platform. There was no dispute here about spreads or execution. There was a federal police operation, money laundering charges against former officers and responsible managers, unfiled audited accounts, and a court-ordered wind up. The licence cancellation was the last formality rather than the event itself.
When ASIC later stripped away the requirements to stay in the complaints scheme and hold compensation cover, it confirmed what clients had probably already worked out: there was nothing left to make a claim against.
For retail traders, the lesson is straightforward: check that your broker lodges its audited accounts on time. A firm that misses a statutory filing is not having a paperwork problem — it is signalling that something inside the business has stopped functioning normally.
About the Company
About Prospero Markets
Regulator
ASIC (Australia)
Action Type
AFS Licence Cancellation, Liquidation
Penalty
Licence cancelled
Licence Number
AFSL 423034
Prospero Markets Pty Ltd, now in liquidation, was an Australian issuer of over-the-counter derivatives and foreign exchange contracts, holding Australian financial services licence number 423034 from December 2012. The licence authorised it to issue and make a market in derivatives and foreign exchange contracts, deal in them on behalf of clients, and provide financial product advice, for both retail and wholesale clients.
Its licence was suspended in December 2023, the Federal Court ordered the company wound up in April 2024, and ASIC cancelled the licence with effect from 25 September 2024. The case arose from an Australian Federal Police money laundering operation targeting the firm's former officers and responsible managers.
Editor's note & source: Factual points are drawn from the ASIC media release 24-218MR. This article is not legal advice. Last updated: 29 July 2026.