A federal court orders an Ohio man to pay $54 million in restitution and fines after allegedly running a fraudulent crypto trading scheme.
Ohio resident Michale Ackerman has been ordered by a judge to pay $27 million in fines and $27 million in damages for running a crypto scam, according to a new press release from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
The order also prohibits Ackerman from trading on CFTC-regulated markets or registering with the CFTC.
Ackerman’s legal troubles began in 2020 when the CFTC filed a complaint against him alleging that from August 2017 to December 2019 he masterminded a crypto trading scheme that involved embezzling millions of dollars in client funds.
According to the complaint, more than 150 individuals and entities have deposited $33 million with Ackerman, but only $10 million of that has ever been used to trade digital assets. The other $23 million was embezzled for their own personal use or to extend the settlement.
The complaint also says that Ackerman concealed his plan by creating fake account statements, fictitious screenshots of money order orders and fake trading returns newsletters to keep up the facade that he was successfully trading crypto assets and earning about 15% monthly returns on his customers.
In addition, in a separate but related criminal case, Ackerman was sentenced to five years of probation, including one year of house arrest. He was also ordered to pay $31 million in restitution at the time.
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