$145M FX Ponzi Schemes Busted!!

Five people and three businesses connected to three linked $ 145 million forex trading Ponzi Schemes have been charged by the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). It is believed that this widespread scheme had defrauded over a thousand investors throughout the globe.

For those who do not know the role of the CFTC, it is responsible for overseeing the country's derivatives markets, which include futures, swaps, and specific types of options.

The lawsuit that was announced last week was named Marcus Brisco and his two companies, Yas Castellum LLC, Yas Castellum Financial LLC; Tin Quoc Tran; Francisco Story; Frederick “Ted” Safranko; Michael Shannon Sims, and Utah-based SAEG Capital General Management LP.

A court ruling on February 6 already obtained a statutory restraining order against the defendants, and their assets were frozen, giving the CFTC access to their financial records and books.

The regulatory body will impose civil fines on the accused in addition to trying to retrieve the investors' money. A permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodities Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations will also be sought, in addition to perpetual trading and registration prohibitions.

Tran managed the fraudulent plan since April 2020 until the CFTC discovered it recently, according to the lawsuit filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Texas. 913 pool participants sent him roughly $145 million, some of which were meant for forex trading and leveraged gold trading. He did, however, use some of the money improperly to pay for loans, invoices, and others unrelated to the commodity pool. He also used the money gathered from pool participants to subsidise his unrelated businesses without the investors' consent.

According to the regulatory complaint, at least 43 pool members deposited at least $470,780 between October 2020 and May 2022 to Yas Castellum LLC, which is under the control of Brisco and which lied about the company's past financial records. Sims helped move these monies to Tran-controlled organisations as well.

In June 2022, Brisco shut down Yas Castellum LLC to launch Yas Castellum Finance LLC, continuing his former business practice of making false statements. Through the new corporation, he amassed over $1.5 million from at least 57 pool participants and once more misused the money by transferring it to Tran-controlled organisations. Brisco even rewarded himself with phoney trading gains that never even materialised.

In order to hide Tran's fraudulent activities, Story, Safranko, and SAEG deliberately filed phoney bank statements to the National Futures Association (NFA).

CFTC and other regulators are busy catching investing frauds in the meanwhile. The $340 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scam Forsage's co-founders were recently indicted by the US Justice Department. In addition, the Head Trader of EmpiresX pleaded guilty to his role in the $100 million fraudulent scam in September.

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