CFTC Sues Wisconsin Woman and Her Companies over Fraud and Misappropriation of Millions of Dollars

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission yesterday filed a civil enforcement action in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin against Kay Yang of Mequon, Wisconsin, and her companies, AK Equity Group LLC and Xapphire LLC. The complaint charges Yang, AK Equity, and Xapphire with fraud and misappropriation related to an off-exchange foreign currency (forex) trading scheme in which they solicited funds totaling at least $15.7 million from at least 67 investors. Yang's husband, Chao Yang, is named as a relief defendant for receiving investor funds to which he was not entitled. 

According to the complaint, from approximately April 2017 through March 2020, the defendants solicited and pooled millions of dollars of investors' funds in bank and trading accounts for the purported purpose of trading forex.

The complaint alleges, among other things, the defendants falsely represented to existing and potential pool participants that they successfully managed hundreds of millions of dollars in a variety of investment vehicles; consistently achieved positive monthly returns; would allocate 100% of pool participants' funds to forex trading; and would adhere to a trading strategy that included low leverage ratios and moderate trading frequencies. These were false claims and the defendants routinely suffered trading losses using high leverage and high frequency trading strategies. The defendants also failed to disclose they misappropriated significant amounts of pool participants' funds to pay for Kay Yang's personal expenses.         

In continuing its litigation, the CFTC seeks full restitution to defrauded pool participants, disgorgement of any ill-gotten gains, a civil monetary penalty, permanent registration and trading bans, and a permanent injunction against future violations of the Commodity Exchange Act, as charged.