Minnesota Federal Court Orders Minnesota Man Charles E. Hays and His Company, Crossfire Trading, LLC, to Pay More than $84 Million in Disgorgement and Civil Monetary Penalties in Connection with Multi-Million Dollar Commodity Pool Ponzi Scheme Ponzi scheme

Key facts

Release number

5978-11

Release date

2011-02-03

Type

Ponzi scheme

Primary source

https://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/PressReleases/5978-11

About CFTC enforcement

The CFTC charges market participants under the Commodity Exchange Act for spoofing, manipulation, fraud, wash trades, registration violations, and commodity-pool-operator misconduct. Most actions settle with restitution + civil money penalty + a bar/suspension. Crypto-asset cases have been a major share since 2019.