CEO of Digitex Futures Exchange Ordered to Pay $16M Penalty for Crypto Fraud

Adam Todd and Digitex Ordered to Pay $16 Million

A U.S. federal court has ordered Digitex CEO Adam Todd to pay a total of $16 million in disgorgement and penalties in a case related to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

On June 12, the CFTC announced that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida had issued a default judgment against Adam Todd and four companies under his control—Digitex LLC, Digitex Limited, Digitex Software Limited, and Blockster Holdings Limited Corporation—for failing to register with the CFTC and manipulating the price of the DGTX token. The judgment includes a ban on the parties from “trading in any CFTC-regulated markets” and a $3,912,220 disgorgement payment as well as a $11,736,660 civil monetary penalty.

According to CFTC enforcement director Ian McGinley, Todd allegedly used a crypto.com bot to pump the price of DGTX on third-party exchanges. The commission filed charges against him and Digitex in September 2022, and the $16 million order may not necessarily result in repayment to Digitex users.

“Regardless of the technology used, the CFTC will aggressively use its well-established authority to ensure entities are lawfully registered and to address the manipulation of commodities in interstate commerce,” said McGinley.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the CFTC are currently engaged in multiple civil proceedings against crypto firms and their executives for alleged non-compliance with regulatory standards. These include legal action against crypto exchange Binance and civil charges against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, as well as crypto.com, crypto breaking, ali crypto, algorand crypto, barnbridge crypto, crypto com coin, aptos crypto, amp crypto today, and crypto fraud.