CFTC Slaps Texas Resident and Six Firms for Running Forex Fraud

The US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced that it has filed a civil enforcement action against Rudy Avila, a Texas resident, and six U.S. and Costa Rican companies for being involved in two fraudulent schemes.

The six companies are: The L.I.F.T. Group LLC (LIFT), CIG Internacional Sociedad Anónima ( CIG) and Trading Technologies Group Sociedad Anónima (TTG) organized in Costa Rica, Trading Ventures Group, LLC (TVG), Capital Ventures Group, LLC (CVG), and Ventures Group, LLC (VGL.).

According to the regulator, since at least 2017 and continuing through at least spring of 2020, Avila, LIFT, CIG, and TTG fraudulently solicited and obtained at least $4.2 million from at least 170 CIG clients for the purported purpose of trading derivatives and forex.

The complaint further alleges that in a second scheme, since at least 2019 and continuing to the present, Avila, TVG, CVG and VGL fraudulently solicited and obtained at least $1.8 million from at least 55 TVG clients also for the purported purpose of trading derivatives and forex.

However, the defendants never traded derivatives and forex on behalf of their clients and, instead, stole most of their clients’ investments.

In the litigation against the defendants, the CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.

Earlier this month, the CFTC announced that it has made some progress in a spoofing case lawsuit against former Deutsche Bank traders​ James Vorley and Cedric Chanu.