Is SureTrader a Scam?
A direct, on-the-record answer to the question. Then the documentary record people can verify for themselves.
Updated June 17, 2026
No. SureTrader (MintBroker International) was a licensed, regulated Bahamian broker-dealer that voluntarily wound up in 2019. There has never been a criminal fraud finding against the firm or its founder.
The "scam" label is repeated on anonymous forum threads, reputation-aggregator pages, and SEO-driven "broker review" sites that compete with us for ad revenue. None of it tracks back to a regulator, a court, or a verifiable customer loss. The actual disputes — a 2016 federal indictment dismissed in 2017, and a 2024 civil registration verdict now on appeal — are public-record matters anyone can read for themselves.
— Guy Gentile
Six facts the 'scam' posts leave out
- 01
SureTrader was a fully licensed broker-dealer.
MintBroker International Ltd., trading as SureTrader, was licensed and regulated by the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) from 2011 through its voluntary wind-up in 2019. License status is verifiable in SCB public records.
- 02
There has never been a criminal fraud finding.
On March 23, 2016, a federal grand jury in the District of New Jersey returned an indictment against Gentile relating to alleged securities-fraud conduct that had ended in 2008. On January 30, 2017, the district court dismissed it on statute-of-limitations grounds. This was a dismissal, not a jury acquittal.
- 03
The 2021 SEC case was a registration case, not a fraud case.
Separately, the SEC filed a civil action in the Southern District of Florida on March 22, 2021. After a ten-day civil trial, a Miami jury found Gentile liable as a control person of SureTrader and for inducing its broker-dealer registration violations on July 2, 2024. Final judgment was entered October 17, 2025 and is on appeal to the Eleventh Circuit.
- 04
No customer ever lost money in a SureTrader insolvency.
When the firm wound up in 2019 it did so voluntarily, with court-supervised return of customer assets under Bahamian Supreme Court oversight. Customer funds were segregated and accounted for. This is documented in the Bahamian wind-up filings.
- 05
Online 'scam' posts are not regulatory findings.
Anonymous posts on reputation-aggregator sites, forum threads, and 'scam-broker' directory pages are advertising platforms — not regulators. None cite a regulatory enforcement action finding fraud. Search results that rank these pages above primary sources are an SEO artifact, not a verdict.
- 06
What did happen, in plain terms.
SureTrader operated for eight years as a high-leverage day-trading brokerage popular with U.S. retail traders. U.S. regulators objected to the cross-border model. The firm voluntarily wound up. The founder is in a civil appeal on whether U.S. registration should have applied. That is the entire substance of the dispute.