{"id":13415,"date":"2023-05-25T00:19:47","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T04:19:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/markets\/crypto\/us-regulator-charges-five-in-a-fraudulent-digital-assets-trading-scheme-after-they-targeted-spanish-speaking-communities\/"},"modified":"2023-05-25T00:19:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-25T04:19:49","slug":"us-regulator-charges-five-in-a-fraudulent-digital-assets-trading-scheme-after-they-targeted-spanish-speaking-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=13415","title":{"rendered":"US Regulator Charges Five in a \u201cFraudulent Digital Assets Trading Scheme\u201d After They Targeted Spanish-Speaking Communities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A US regulator charges five people on Wednesday for allegedly \u201cfraudulently soliciting\u201d money from more than 170 people for a company called Icomtech to trade bitcoin and other assets for them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint 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 \u2014 who all did business as Icomtech, the regulator said.<\/p>\n

The five misappropriated customer funds and specifically \u201ctargeted Spanish-speaking communities,\u201d the CFTC said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What happened<\/h2>\n

From August 2018 through December 2019, the five and other Icomtech agents \u201cfalsely represented they would use the money to trade Bitcoin and other digital asset commodities for the customers,\u201d would provide returns and would double customers\u2019 money within months, the regulator said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That didn\u2019t happen, the CFTC alleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead, Defendants misappropriated customer funds to further promote the scheme, and, on information and belief, to pay for personal expenditures and to pay themselves commissions and bonuses,\u201d according to the CFTC\u2019s complaint. \u201cIn fact, some Icomtech customers lost all of their funds.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carmona and Arellano is believed to be in federal custody, the CFTC said.<\/p>\n

The regulator also named bitcoin, Ether and USDC as \u201ccommodities\u201d in the complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sometimes, hundreds of people attended different Icomtech promotional events, which were held throughout California, according to the complaint.\u00a0<\/p>\n

CFTC Commissioner Kristin Johnson compared the alleged fraud to an \u201cold-school Ponzi scheme,\u201d in a statement<\/u>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Johnson said she was committed to \u201craising alarms regarding fraud that targets vulnerable investors based on relationships, kinship, or other social network connections.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I have noted previously, perpetrators target the identified communities because they are familiar with the fears and challenges that may deter investors from reporting or effectively communicating the details of the fraud to law enforcement or regulatory authorities,\u201d Johnson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A US regulator charges five people on Wednesday for allegedly \u201cfraudulently soliciting\u201d money from more than 170 people for a company called Icomtech to trade bitcoin and other assets for them.\u00a0 The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a complaint in the US District Court for the Central District of California against David Carmona, Juan Arellano […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13416,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[243],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-13415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crypto","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nUS Regulator Charges Five in a \u201cFraudulent Digital Assets Trading Scheme\u201d After They Targeted Spanish-Speaking Communities | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A US regulator charges five people on Wednesday for 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