Florida Man Accused of Scamming Millions in Forex and Binary Options Scheme

Fazzaco learned from a CFTC press release that Patrick Wonsey from Riverview, Florida, is facing a lawsuit filed by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. The lawsuit alleges that Wonsey committed fraud and misappropriation in a trading scheme that involved retail foreign currency (forex) and binary options, among other things, on and off CFTC-regulated exchanges. Wonsey allegedly collected at least $3.4 million from at least 50 people.

The CFTC is seeking to recover the ill-gotten gains, impose civil monetary penalties, order restitution, ban Wonsey from registration and trading, and enjoin him from further violating the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA), as charged.

According to the lawsuit, from around January 2017 to September 2022, Wonsey lured and pooled over $3.4 million from at least 50 pool participants for the supposed purpose of trading retail forex, binary options, metals and digital assets. He made false and material claims and omissions about his trading history, future profitability, payout frequency, and risk level to persuade pool participants to send him money. Wonsey only traded retail forex and binary options.

Wonsey did not trade pool participant funds as promised, but used them for his personal benefit and to pay other pool participants in a Ponzi-like fashion. When pool participants asked for their funds, Wonsey did not pay them. He either ignored the requests, gave fraudulent excuses, or tried to delay payouts as much as possible.

Moreover, Wonsey was not registered as a commodity pool operator, did not set up the pool properly, and mixed pool participant funds with his own.