The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it has filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Portland, Ore. resident Sreenivas I Rao, Illinois resident Ravishankar Avadhanam, and several corporate entities controlled by the defendants are charged with running a $44 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
The complaint alleges that since at least January 2021, the defendants have used websites, YouTube videos and other means to raise more than $44 million from at least 170 participants, purporting to be used to buy, hold and trade digital assets, commodities, derivatives, swaps. futures and commodity futures contracts, but instead of making real investments, the defendants distributed the funds to other participants in a way similar to a Ponzi scheme. The CFTC is seeking damages, recoveries, civil penalties, and permanent trading injunctions for violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA).
