Abner Tinoco charged for $7.2 million Forex and Crypto ponzi scheme
The CFTC first pressed charges against Abner Tinoco in October 2021, accusing him on fraudulent solicitations and misappropriation of over $3.9 million from at least 61 clients. The number has since moved upwards of $7.2 million from at least 322 clients.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has celebrated a court order charging Abner Alejandro Tinoco and his company Kikit & Mess Investments, LLC, for a Forex and Cryptocurrency fraud.
U.S. District Court Judge David C. Guaderrama signed a consent order that finds that, from September 2020, the defendants fraudulently solicited at least $7.2 million from at least 322 clients, who intended to trade forex or cryptocurrency in managed accounts.
The defendants are liable for fraud and are permanently banned from trading or registering with the CFTC. The order also reserves determination of the amounts of restitution, disgorgement, and civil monetary penalty for future decision by the court.
Ponzi scheme, private jet, luxury mansion, and so on
Abner Alejandro Tinoco and his company promised to use the funds to trade foreign exchange and cryptocurrency in individual managed accounts, said the court, which found the defendants did not trade their clients’ funds as represented.
Instead, funds were used to pay for Tinoco’s personal expenses, such as the travel costs for chartering a private jet, the purchase of a luxury mansion and other real estate, and the purchase or lease of luxury automobiles, the order found, adding that some of the funds were also used to pay bogus “investment profits” to clients in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme.
The CFTC first pressed charges against Abner Tinoco in October 2021, accusing him on fraudulent solicitations and misappropriation of over $3.9 million from at least 61 clients. The number has since moved upward to at least $7.2 million from at least 322 clients.
The CFTC has a Whistleblower Office that rewards customers and other individuals that report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the Division of Enforcement.
Tips and complaints that directly help the CFTC in their successful charges are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected paid from the Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA.
Ponzi schemes are, unfortunately, a dime a dozen.
