The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that the Colorado District Court entered a judgement against Venture Capital Investments LLC (VCI) and its principal and managers Breonna Clark, Eliot Clark and Alexander Pak (Clark) for fraudulently soliciting and misappropriating funds from clients in a digital asset and forex Ponzi scheme.
The court requires VCI and Clark to pay $450,302 in restitution to defrauded clients, a civil monetary penalty of $450,302 and the CFTC’s costs. Additionally, the defendants are banned from registering with the CFTC and trading in any CFTC-regulated markets.
The order stems from a complaint against VCI filed on 14 February 2020. The court established that the defendants fraudulently solicited over 72 clients to invest in commodity pools that purportedly trade in forex and digital assets, including bitcoin, only to then misappropriate the money.
Further, the court uncovered that the defendants lured their clients through social media, touting the ability of their purported “master team of traders” to provide consistent trading profits. The court found that the defendants used their clients’ money to acquire a luxury automobile, among other things. The clients’ money were also used to make Ponzi-type payments to others to maintain the scheme. The defendants fraudulently solicited and misappropriated total of $450,302.
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