CFTC charges ten people in a $4.75 million forex Ponzi scheme

Steffy Bogdanova
September 17, 2020 1:49 pm

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed charges against 10 defendants in a multi-level $4.75 million forex Ponzi scheme.

The CFTC charged based in Florida Avinash Singh with soliciting and misappropriating funds through a master commodity pool Highrise Advantage, LLC. Daniel Cologero and Randy Rosseau who are also based in Florida and Hemraj Singh from New Jersey are also charged with soliciting funds from clients for Highrise through the commodity pools they operated including Green Knight Investments, LLC, Bull Run Advantage, LLC and King Royalty, LLC. Surujpaul Sahdeo and his company SR&B Enterprises are also charged with unlawfully soliciting, accepting, and feeding client funds to Highrise.

The court froze the assets of Singh, Highrise, Green Knight, Bull Run, King Royalty, and SR&B on 16 September 2020. The court also prohibited the destruction or concealment of their books and records.

Division of Enforcement Director James McDonald said:

As alleged, these bad actors lied to participants about the use of the funds entrusted to them for forex trading. The enforcement action filed today demonstrates the CFTC’s continued commitment to rooting out fraud in our markets.

CFTC

According to the US watchdog, from February 2013 to present, the defendants accepted $4.75 million from more than 150 victims. Avinash Singh falsely claimed to be a successful commodities trader in order to solicit potential victims to participate in Highrise. Cologero, Hemraj Singh and Rosseau also misrepresented the profits the commodity pool had generated and the potential risk of loss.

Avinash Singh and Highrise accepted $4.75 million and traded only a combined amount of $1,656,000 in forex. The defendants misappropriated $3 million of victims’ funds to pay personal expenses, to transfer to other defendants and to make Ponzi-type payments to other victims.

Highrise, Green Knight, Bull Run and King Royalty issued false monthly accounts statements that misrepresented their profits. SR&B received $1,350,000 from victims in its own name and then transferred the funds to Highrise.

The defendants also failed to registered with the CFTC as regulatory requirements mandate.

CFTC seeks from the defendants full restitution to defrauded victims, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, monetary penalties and permanent registration and trading bans.

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LeapRate Analyst

Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
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