CFTC Secures Order for $2.5 Million Penalty on Binary Options Swindler

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced yesterday that it has secured a permanent injunction against Ronald Montano, a resident of St. Cloud, Florida, and Montano Enterprises LLC (MEL), and an order for a combined $2.5 million in restitution and civil monetary penalty for solicitation fraud in connection with binary options trading.

According to the announcement, specifically, the order requires Montano and MEL to pay restitution in the amount of $825,000 and a civil monetary penalty of $1.675 million. Besides, Montano and MEL are ordered to cease and desist from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, from trading on or subject to the rules of any CFTC-registered entity, and from engaging in any activities requiring registration with the CFTC.

The CFTC noted that the court’s order stemmed from its complaint filed on September 27, 2018. The Commission found that Montano used fraudulent solicitations in emails, websites, and video sales letters promising free access to purportedly successful automated trading systems that traded on behalf of clients in binary options involving commodity interests. These solicitations misrepresented hypothetical and fictitious trading results as real results, used fabricated customer testimonials, and misstated the experience, background, and skill of the “creators” of these automated trading systems.