The CFTC has the U.S. District Court in North Carolina has imposed $76 million in fines against Keith F. Simmons and Deanna Salazar and their companies in connection with a currency trading Ponzi scheme.
Simmons of North Carolina and Salazar of California fraudulently solicited and accepted $35 million from 240 individuals to engage in off-exchange forex trading through a trading platform known as Black Diamond from 2007 through 2009.
In fact, no forex trading was ever conducted through the Black Diamond trading platform, and the Black Diamond trading platform never existed.
Rather, Simmons and Salazar misappropriated millions of dollars of customer funds to make purported profit payments to customers, as is typical of a Ponzi scheme, and for personal and unrelated business expenses.
In related criminal actions Simmons was sentenced to 40 years’ incarceration and was ordered to pay criminal restitution of $35 million. Salazar was sentenced to 4.5 years’ and was ordered to pay $5 million in criminal restitution. Both Simmons and Salazar are currently serving their sentences.
To see the CFTC press release click here.