CFTC Imposes $54M Judgment on Trader for Crypto Fraud Scheme

Default Judgment Against Michael Ackerman

On June 28th, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, with Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald presiding, issued a default judgment granting a permanent injunction against Michael Ackerman, a resident of Alliance, Ohio, as announced by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Ackerman has been barred from engaging in any trading activities on CFTC-regulated markets and is not allowed to register with the CFTC. As part of the judgment, he must pay $27 million in restitution to those who were harmed by his fraudulent digital asset trading scheme. Furthermore, he is required to pay a $27 million civil monetary penalty, which serves as a significant financial punishment for his involvement in the deceitful scheme.

Ackerman is alleged to have perpetrated a fraudulent scheme wherein he obtained money from people and organizations by deceptive means. Rather than utilizing the funds for what they were supposed to be used for, it is said that he misused the majority of the money for his own benefit or to keep the fraudulent trading scheme going.

The CFTC initiated the case which dates back to February 11, 2020, when Ackerman was charged with devising a complex fraud from August 2017 to December 2019. The allegation was that Ackerman had requested money for trading digital commodity assets but instead misused the funds.

It is reported that Ackerman was trusted by over 150 individuals and entities with a total of at least $33 million. Surprisingly, only a small fraction of the money, less than $10 million, was actually utilized for trading, while the rest was illegally taken for personal use or to keep the fraudulent activity going.

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