The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed an enforcement action in the US District Court for the Central District of California against David Carmona, Juan Arellano Parra, Moses Valdez, David Brend, and Marco A. Ruiz Ochoa, who were all doing business as a company called Icomtech.
According to the CFTC’s complaint, the defendants fraudulently solicited money from over 170 individuals in the US as well as other countries ostensibly to trade Bitcoin and other digital assets. The CFTC claims that the defendants misappropriated the customer funds while targeting Spanish-speaking consumers.
In a parallel criminal case, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York filed an indictment (in 2022) against the defendants.
The CFTC claims that the defendants falsely represented they would use the money to trade digital assets and that Icomtech would provide “daily returns” of between 0.9% to 2.8% on the customers’ money. Additionally, the CFTC claims the company said it would double the customers’ money in approximately four to eight months from trading.
The complaint adds that the defendants allegedly absconded with the funds while not doing any actual trading on behalf of their clients.
In its continuing litigation, the CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, as charged.