<p><span>Thank you to the Organising Partners and Patrons for the invitation to speak</span><span> here at City Week on key risks of digital assets.</span></p>
<p><span>The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered an order for permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief against Alan Friedland of Florida and his Florida-based companies, Fintech Investment Group, Inc. (Fintech), and Compcoin LLC, for fraudulently soliciting customers to purchase a digital asset they falsely promised would allow customers to gain access to a proprietary foreign currency (forex) trading algorithm. </span></p>
<div><span><br /></span></div>
Monday, December 21, 2020
Executive Summary
As one of the regulators engaged in the cryptocurrency space, the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has been bringing enforcement actions against virtual currency market participants, including traders, issuers, exchanges, and service providers. From January 1, 2015, to June 30, 2020, the CFTC brought 19 such actions.
Of the 19 actions between 2015 and Q2 2020, 14 were litigated in U.S. district courts. The other five were resolved within the CFTC as orders and simultaneous settlements.
The majority of actions involved an allegedly fraudulent scheme, with 14 out of the 19 involving allegedly misleading investors in the trading of commodities.
Eight of the 19 actions involved alleged failure to register with the CFTC, while four of the actions involved allegedly illegal off-exchange commodity transactions.