The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has marked progress in its action against the individuals behind fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme Global Trading Club (GTC). This becomes clear from documents recently filed with the Texas Southern District Court.
Let’s recall that, in September 2020, the CFTC filed a complaint against four individuals for fraudulently soliciting funds from customers to speculate in Bitcoin price movements. The defendants are Texas residents Mayco Alexis Maldonado Garcia, Cesar Castaneda, and Rodrigo Jose Castro Molina, and Florida resident Joel Castaneda Garcia.
The complaint alleges that from at least August 2016 through October 2017, the defendants falsely represented to actual and potential customers that their business, named Global Trading Club (GTC), employed “master traders” who had years of experience trading “crypto currency,” and used “cutting edge trading robots” to trade Bitcoin for customers “24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”
The defendants further falsely represented that customer earnings would increase based on the amount of their deposits. Customers were also falsely promised a bonus for referring others, in the form of a multi-level marketing scheme. To conceal their fraud, the defendants caused misleading trading statements to be posted online.
The complaint further alleges that at least 27 individual customers deposited at least $989,000 with one or more representatives of GTC.
According to the latest status report filed by the CFTC, Maldonado, Cesar Castaneda and Joel Castaneda have agreed to and signed proposed consent orders of permanent injunction, restitution, civil monetary penalties, and other relief.
Those proposed consent orders must be approved by the Commission before being submitted to the Court for its consideration. The Commission’s approval process is ongoing.
The CFTC is set to submit the proposed consent order to the Court by July 30, 2021, or, by that date, update the Court on the status of the matter.