The commission filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of California against William Koo Ichioka. Regulator accuses American of embezzling $21 million from investors. Defendant, according to the CFTC, represented itself as a cryptocurrency and forex trader, using depositors’ funds at its own discretion, paying profits to old investors at the expense of new investors.
According to the CFTC, more than 100 individuals and entities were involved in the scheme. The pyramid organizer created a common pool called Ichioka Ventures and claimed on his website that he was an experienced trader who had already earned millions of dollars. The scammer promised to pay 10% of the deposit every 30 business days to the participants of the pool. But, after losing a significant amount of funds, he began to forge user statements and balances, and pay out profits at the expense of new investors. At the same time buying luxury cars, jewelry and expensive watches for themselves.
Fraud has already offered a settlement agreement to the regulator to drop the charges. CFTC seeks monetary penalty for Ichioka and injunction against trading. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Department of Justice said they have launched their own investigation into William Ku Ichioka.
Earlier, U.S. authorities had accused
the Las Vegas resident of complicity in the cryptocurrency pyramid scheme CoinDeal.