The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has revealed it has charged five individuals and five companies with fraud, misappropriation and registration violations in relation to a fraudulent forex scheme.
The defendants include Jase Davis of Brandon, Borys Konovalenko; Anna Shymko of Duluth, Alla Skala Fort Erie, Timothy Stubbs, Notus LLC, Easy Com LLC, Global E-Advantages LLC a/k/a Kickmagic LLC, Grovee LLC, Shopostar LLC all doing business as ROFX.
The scheme
According to the US regulator, the defendants used the ROFX.net website to fraudulently solicit funds from US and international customers. Purporting to offer trading in forex, the defendants misappropriated $58 million in the period between January 2018 and September 2021.
CFTC alleges that the ROFX website claimed to trade forex using a highly successful automated trading robot with guaranteed coverage of losses. More than 1,100 customers opened trading accounts through the website and deposited their money in the name of one or more of the companies, all controlled by the individual defendants.
All of the funds the defendants obtained by the defendants, they misappropriated by wiring to non-trading corporate entities in Poland, Thailand, and elsewhere, as well as to the individual defendants themselves.
Additionally, the regulator discovered that companies acted as futures commission merchants by doing business as ROFX. They solicited or accepted orders for retail forex transactions via the ROFX website, and accepted funds related to such transactions without being registered with the CFTC.
The CFTC noted that it seeks restitution to the affected individuals, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, bans and injunctions against further violations.
Earlier in December, the CFTC filed charges against WorldWideMarkets, Ltd., TAB Networks, Inc., Thomas Plaut and Arthur Dembro in a multi-million-dollar forex fraud.
