North Carolina couple charged with $1 million Forex Ponzi scheme
Storm and Elijah Bryant, both individually and as agents of Capital Storm, Generation Black, and/or Ncome, describe themselves as highly successful forex traders who generate tremendous returns for their clients.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has filed a civil enforcement action against Storm Bryant and Elijah Bryant, CapitalStorm, GenerationBlack, and NCome.
The charges are for fraudulent solicitation, misappropriation and registration violations relating to a $1.05 million fraudulent scheme operated by the Bryants through their corporate entities.
The court has recently issued an ex parte order freezing assets controlled by the defendants and preserving records.
From March 2018 onwards, the defendants have allegedly fraudulently solicited, and continue to fraudulently solicit, existing and prospective clients who are not eligible contract participants (ECPs) to engage in retail transactions in off-exchange foreign currency (forex) on a leveraged, margined, or financed basis.
According to the CFTC, the Bryants, through their North Carolina entities, received approximately $1.05 million from approximately 94 clients, all of which the defendants misappropriated. Approximately $50,870 was sent back to clients as purported forex trading “profits” in the nature of a Ponzi scheme.
Capital Storm, Generation Black, and Ncome, weren’t registered with the CFTC as commodity trading advisors (CTA), nor were Storm and Elijah Bryant registered as associated persons of a CTA.
Still, they solicited and continue to solicit clients or prospective clients through in-person solicitations as well as social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, including a website operated by Storm and Elijah Bryant, to induce non-ECP, retail clients to send the defendants funds, the regulator added.
“Storm and Elijah Bryant, both individually and as agents of Capital Storm, Generation Black, and/or Ncome, describe themselves as highly successful forex traders who generate tremendous returns for their clients.
“When the Bryants successfully induced non-ECP, retail clients to send them funds, the Bryants misappropriated the funds by receiving them or moving them into accounts held by Storm and/or Elijah Bryant in their own names and using the funds to purchase jewelry, rent homes, European travel, and fund the Bryants’ personal trading accounts”, said the statement.
Restitution orders may not result in the recovery of money lost, because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.
The CFTC has issued several customer protection Fraud Advisories that provide the warning signs of fraud, including the Foreign Currency (Forex) Trading Fraud Advisory, to help customers identify this sort of scam.
The CFTC also strongly urges the public to verify a company’s registration with the Commission before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that entity.
