Miami, FL – The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has filed a civil enforcement action against Thomas D’Angelo, along with co-defendants Safranko and Negus-Romvari, alleging a multi-layered fraud scheme that impacted over 2,000 customers and misappropriated at least $283 million. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
According to the CFTC complaint, D’Angelo, Safranko, and Negus-Romvari solicited funds from customers beginning in November 2019, promising opportunities to trade leveraged commodity transactions, specifically gold-to-U.S. dollar pairs (XAU/USD) and other commodities, through pooled and individual accounts. The agency alleges the defendants made material misrepresentations and misappropriated customer funds.
The scheme involved a network of “sponsors” – Algo Capital, Algo FX Capital Advisor (also known as Quant5), and Centurion – along with their respective agents, who allegedly fraudulently solicited customers and furthered the scheme. These sponsors are accused of downplaying warning signs and continuing to solicit funds even as the operation faced collapse.
Customers began experiencing withdrawal delays in the fall of 2022, and many were ultimately unable to access their funds. The defendants allegedly provided conflicting excuses and falsely assured customers their money was safe while continuing to solicit new investments, allegedly extending the fraudulent scheme for an additional six months. D’Angelo’s successor firm, Trubluefx, is also accused of misappropriating funds by failing to process refund requests.
On October 3, Judge Roy K. Altman issued a statutory restraining order, freezing the defendants’ assets and granting the CFTC access to their financial records. A preliminary injunction hearing is scheduled for October 29. The CFTC is seeking disgorgement of ill-gotten gains, civil monetary penalties, restitution for affected customers, trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations.
The CFTC investigation received assistance from the National Futures Association, the Ontario Securities Commission, the Financial Services Authority Saint Vincent & The Grenadines, Finantsinspektsioon (Estonian Financial Supervision and Resolution Authority), and the Vanuatu Financial Services Commission.
Source: CFTC.gov
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