WASHINGTON D.C. – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action against Or Patreanu of Israel, along with three other individuals and a Seychelles-based company, alleging a multi-million dollar fraud targeting investors in the United States and abroad. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on September 29, 2023, accuses the defendants of misappropriating funds solicited through a scheme known as Cryptobravos, operating under multiple aliases including Trade2Get, Coinbull, and Tradenix.
According to the CFTC, from approximately January 2017 through October 2021, Patreanu, Snir Hananya (Italy), Elijah Samson (Germany), Artem Prokopenko (Ukraine), and Expected Value Plus Ltd., collectively operated a fraudulent scheme based out of Israel, Ukraine, Albania, and South Africa. They allegedly solicited funds – primarily in Bitcoin and other digital assets – from individuals, including many U.S. residents, promising managed accounts for digital asset trading.
The complaint details that agents of Cryptobravos falsely claimed they would trade customer funds, generate risk-free returns, and allow for easy withdrawals. However, the CFTC alleges that no legitimate trading occurred. Instead, customer funds were accepted and largely never returned, with some customers being encouraged to liquidate retirement accounts or take out loans to increase deposits or pay fabricated taxes and commissions. The vast majority of investors reportedly did not recover their funds.
The CFTC is seeking restitution, disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations. The investigation involved significant international cooperation, with assistance from securities regulators in Albania, Belize, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Liechtenstein, the Seychelles, South Africa, and the United Kingdom.
The case is being pursued by Michael Cazakoff, Jack Murphy, K. Brent Tomer, Lenel Hickson Jr., and Manal M. Sultan of the CFTC’s Division of Enforcement, with assistance from Jennifer Diamond of the Office of Chief Counsel.
Source: CFTC.gov
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