CFTC Charges Ohio Man For Orchestrating Ponzi Scheme
- The CFTC has charged Rathnakishore Giri and his parents, Loka Pavani Giri and Giri Subramani, along with two companies, SR Private Equity, LLC and NBD Eidetic Capital, LLC, for allegedly conducting fraudulent activities.
- They have gained $12 million and at least 10 Bitcoins from the Ponzi scheme and at least 150 clients are effected.
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission has recently filed a civil lawsuit against New Albany’s Rathnakishore Giri and his Ohio-based companies SR Private Equity, LLC and NBD Eidetic Capital, LLC for allegedly conducting fraudulent activities.
According to a recent announcement by the CFTC, the newly-filed civil enforcement action with the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio targets Giri and his companies for soliciting more than $12 million and over 10 BTC units from 150+ customers. The lawsuit claims that the companies misused customer funds intended for crypto trading.
Moreover, the case accuses Giri’s parents, Loka Pavani Giri and Giri Subramani, of being relief defendants, possessing funds on which they have no legitimate claim.
In its ongoing legal action, the CFTC is seeking civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, disgorgement of illegally obtained gains, and an injunction against further violations of CFTC regulations and the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).
Notably, the defendants allegedly engaged in a fraudulent scheme from March 2019 to the present, in which they collected more than $12 million and over 10 BTC units from customers by making “numerous false and misleading statements, including guarantees of profits, and Giri’s supposed success as a digital asset trader.”
Moreover, Giri and his companies also told people that they had the ability to withdraw their initial funds and promised profits at any time, which was false, according to CFTC.
After soliciting funds from over 150 users, they allegedly invested in various digital asset investment funds allegedly handled by the defendants.
“The complaint also alleges that in their solicitations to customers, the defendants omitted material facts, including that the defendants misappropriated customer funds to pay profits to other customers in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme and also misappropriated customer funds to pay for Giri’s lavish lifestyle, which included yacht rentals, luxury vacations, and luxury shopping.”
CFTC states.
When the defendants transferred customer funds to Giri and the other defendants’ personal bank accounts and trading accounts for digital assets, they allegedly mixed those funds with those of the customers.
The CFTC concluded the report with a request to the public to always verify a company’s registration with the CFTC before putting their money into it.
CFTC’s recent charges
The regulatory body has recently been really active in hunting down projects and companies involved in any kind of fraudulent activities in the crypto industry. In June, the CFTC charged South African Bitcoin Club Mirror Trading International (MTI) with commodity fraud involving $1.7 billion, as BitcoinWisdom reported. Moreover, in July this year, it charged crypto exchange Gemini for a BTC Futures case from 2017.
A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.
