A Danish resident, Casper Mikkelsen, has been permanently banned from trading commodity interests after being found guilty of forex fraud by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced the judgment on April 8, 2022, resolving a case initially filed on May 18, 2020.
Mikkelsen, who also operated under the aliases Carsten Nielsen, Brian Thomson, Thomas Jensen, and Casper Muller, falsely promised clients he would trade foreign currency (forex) on their behalf. Investors contributed at least $1,536,782.47 to GNTFX, but Mikkelsen instead misappropriated the funds for his personal benefit and to pay earlier investors – a classic Ponzi scheme tactic.
The court order requires Mikkelsen to pay $1,191,286 in restitution to his victims, and a penalty of $3,573,860, which is triple the amount of profit he illegally obtained through the fraudulent scheme. The CFTC cautioned that recovering funds from victims is not guaranteed, as the perpetrator may lack sufficient assets.
“The CFTC will continue to partner with foreign regulators and other agencies to aggressively pursue individuals who use our markets to misappropriate funds from unsuspecting victims no matter where these individuals may reside,” stated CFTC Acting Director of Enforcement Vincent McGonagle.
Notably, Mikkelsen was required to be registered as a commodity trading advisor but failed to do so. The investigation involved assistance from numerous international regulatory bodies, including authorities in Australia, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Malaysia, Ontario, Portugal, Singapore, and the United Kingdom.
The case was led by CFTC staff members Xavier Romeu-Matta, Judith M. Slowly, Christopher Giglio, James G. Wheaton, Steven I. Ringer, Lenel Hickson, Jr., and Manal M. Sultan.
Source: CFTC.gov
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