CFTC pushes for another default order in binary options, bitcoin fraud case
The regulator seeks a certificate of default against The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, accused of perpetrating $1.1 million fraud.
The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) maintains its efforts to tackle binary options and cryptocurrency fraud. After pushing for a default order against Dillon Michael Dean, at the helm of a $1.1 million fraudulent scheme, the regulator is now seeking a similar order against the company he ran – The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited (TEH).
Dean has been out of reach in the face of the CFTC attempts to contact him. There had been visits to his addresses in Colorado, emails and phone messages, as well as calls. The regulator even resorted to a skip trace performed on March 15, 2018, using CLEAR, an online investigative platform commonly utilized by law enforcement agencies and operated by Thomson Reuters. But it revealed no further address, email, or telephone information for Dean.
A Deputy with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office has spoken with a woman who identified herself as Christina Kielnecker who stated that Dean no longer lived at the residence. She stated that “he packed up and moved his belongings out of the residence, after all the stuff started coming down.”
Now, the CFTC is seeking to obtain a certificate of default against The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited, which has gone unresponsive too.
According to documents filed with the New York Eastern District Court on Monday, June 11, 2018, TEH has not answered or otherwise moved with respect to the complaint. The time to do so expired on June 4, 2018.
In its Complaint, filed with the New York Eastern District Court on January 18, 2018, the CFTC charges Dean and his company The Entrepreneurs Headquarters Limited (TEH) of violating numerous clauses of the the Commodity Exchange Act and the Commission Regulations. The CFTC says that from approximately April 2017 through the present the Defendants engaged in a fraudulent scheme to solicit at least $1.1 million worth of Bitcoin from more than 600 members of the public to participate in a pooled investment vehicle for trading commodity interests.
During the Relevant Period, TEH also failed to register with the Commission as a commodity pool operator, and Dean failed to register with the Commission as an associated person of a CPO.
Dean and other representatives of TEH have launched another “trading venture” called Real Trade Profits (RTP), which solicits new customers in a manner very similar to TEH—seeking investments in Bitcoin for a pooled investment, professing expertise and consistent results in binary options trading.
The case is captioned Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Dean et al (2:18-cv-00345).