Individual behind suspected FX scam Simple Wealth refuses to comply with CFTC subpoena
The US regulator still has no access to the documents it seeks from Cody Wilson, the individual behind the allegedly fraudulent Forex and binary options scheme.
A couple of months after the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has turned to Court in an attempt to secure more information about the activities of Simple Wealth amid suspicions that the entity is involved in Forex and binary options fraud, the US regulator says there has been no progress in securing the requested information.
On November 6, 2019, the CFTC filed a Motion to Compel with the Columbia District Court, requesting that Cody M. Wilson, the individual behind Simple Wealth, comply with a subpoena the regulator issued about a year ago.
The CFTC issued the Subpoena based on information that suggested that Wilson may have misappropriated customer funds, or fraudulently solicited customers to pay (1) for training and trading tips regarding Forex or (2) for Wilson to trade binary options and Forex on customers’ behalves.
Mr. Wilson solicited customers through a variety of ventures, including an entity called Simple Wealth LLC.
Information obtained by the CFTC indicates that Mr. Wilson and his associates may have maintained a number of social media accounts to solicit customers, including Simple Wealth, Simple Wealth Academy, Team Unemployable, Young Millionaires and Onthehouse. Mr. Wilson and the Cody Wilson Entities offered products and services that went by a variety of names, including Simple Wallet, Simple Wealth Auto Trading, Greener Pastures, and the Simple Wealth Signal Group.
According to complaints received by the Commission, prospective customers were told that investing with Mr. Wilson or the Cody Wilson Entities would yield a significant payout in a short period time.
Certain individuals told the CFTC that they were unable to make withdrawals from their accounts with Mr. Wilson and Simple Wealth upon request. The investigative team obtained information suggesting that at some point in 2018, Mr. Wilson told customers that his trading accounts had been hacked, that all of the investors’ money had been stolen, and that neither he nor Simple Wealth would be able to return the individuals’ original investment or pay the returns the individuals had been promised.
In February 2019, Wilson produced a handful of documents in response to the Subpoena, but he has not responded to a majority of the Subpoena’s requests, and his limited response to the other requests appears entirely inadequate.
On January 15, 2020, the Commission informed the Columbia District Court that there have been no new developments with respect to Wilson’s non-compliance with the Subpoena. Wilson has not reached out to the CFTC to cure his non-compliance, or reschedule his investigative testimony, nor has Wilson produced any additional documents in response to the Subpoena.
In an ongoing effort to contact Wilson, CFTC staff has also been in touch with Federal authorities in Idaho. The information available to the Federal authorities in Idaho indicates that Wilson still resides in Idaho, albeit at a different location than the one at which he was served with the Subpoena.
