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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 not less than 170 traders via a web site and YouTube movies.
Sam Ikkurty of Portland, Oregon, and Ravishankar Avadhnam of Aurora, Illinois, have been recognized within the CFTC announcement, which added {that a} restraining order had been issued by a decide freezing belongings managed by the 2, preserving information and appointing a brief receiver.
The criticism alleges that the 2 solicited cash from traders to “buy, maintain and commerce digital belongings, commodities, derivatives, swaps and commodity futures contracts.” Nonetheless, it says, reasonably than investing the funds as represented, they misappropriated them by distributing cash to different individuals, “in a way akin to a Ponzi scheme.”
The defendants then transferred funds to accounts for their very own profit, together with tens of millions of {dollars} to an off-shore entity, the CFTC mentioned. They’re charged with working an unlawful commodity pool and failing to register as a commodity pool operator.
