commercial
The Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) on Thursday charged two US residents with fraud “akin to a Ponzi scheme” in soliciting about $44 million from a minimum of 170 buyers by means of a web site and YouTube movies.
Sam Ikkurty of Portland, Oregon, and Ravishankar Avadhnam of Aurora, Illinois, had been recognized within the CFTC announcement, which added {that a} restraining order had been issued by a choose freezing belongings managed by the 2, preserving data and appointing a brief receiver.
The criticism alleges that the 2 solicited cash from buyers to “buy, maintain and commerce digital belongings, commodities, derivatives, swaps and commodity futures contracts.” Nonetheless, it says, moderately than investing the funds as represented, they misappropriated them by distributing cash to different members, “in a fashion akin to a Ponzi scheme.”
The defendants then transferred funds to accounts for their very own profit, together with hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to an off-shore entity, the CFTC stated. They’re charged with working an unlawful commodity pool and failing to register as a commodity pool operator.
