CFTC says defendants lured clients to trade forex, but used funds for personal use.

The CFTC has obtained a court order ordering Kevin Harris, Keelan Harris, Complete Developments, LLC (CDL), and Investment International Inc. (aka I3), all of Warren, Ohio, along with another defendant, Karen Starr of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, “collectively to pay restitution” of over $23 million.

We’ve seen this type of Ponzi Scheme before — rather than trading forex on their customers’ behalf, the Opinion finds that CDL and I3 operated as a Ponzi scheme and used customers’ money to make payments to other customers and for Kevin Harris, Keelan Harris, and Starr’s own personal use.

This case what somewhat interesting, and rare, as the judgment also ordered that certain ex-clients which did get their money out disgorge (i.e. repay) what they got back to the “general kitty”, to be distributed between all defendants. Specifically, relief defendants Majestic Enterprises Collision Repair Inc. and UCAN Overseas were ordered to pay $302,277 and $768,000, respectively, consisting of customer funds that they received as the result of the above defendants fraudulent conduct.

For the entire CFTC press release click here.

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