The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has busted a massive Forex and Bitcoin trading racket and brought civil enforcement charges against 8 individuals who were running the scheme. They operated a platform called Prime FX and misappropriated over $1.2 million in clients’ funds.
According to the official announcement on Friday, the mastermind of the fraudulent scheme is a Nigerian named Uduakobong Udo Inyangudo a/k/a Alexander Uti Bassey, while the other perpetrators are US citizens living in different states.
Operated for Years
The regulator alleged that the accused ran the fraudulent trading scheme from around June 2016 until February 2019. They operated a website, Primefx.org, and made false and misleading representations regarding trading activities. Uti was the administrator of the website and was responsible for managing the domain.
The scheme solicited and misappropriated funds from the US as well as international investors.
Additionally, the complaint blamed Uti for the solicitation of funds. Moreover, he managed an email account directing the existing and new customers of the scheme to deposit funds into the personal bank accounts of the other defendants, along with other Prime FX agents, who ultimately misappropriated the Prime FX customers’ funds.
“The defendants engaged in conduct that facilitated the misappropriation of virtually all of the Prime FX customers’ funds,” the CFTC stated.
Forex and crypto-related fraud is rampant in the United States, which lure vulnerable investors promising high returns in a short time. Furthermore, the CFTC is actively busting such schemes and have charged several individuals and groups for defrauding investors of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, the regulator is vigilant against the shady trading platforms and has recently red-flagged 14 websites providing binary options trading with forex and crypto instruments.
