CFTC charges Florida man for sale of 'Compcoin' digital asset in alleged fraud scheme
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has charged a Florida resident and his companies for illegally collecting $1.6 million in an alleged leveraged foreign-exchange fraud.
According to the complaint, Alan Friedland had defrauded customers through his two companies, Fintech Investment Group and Compcoin. from 2016 to 2018. He allegedly enticed customers to purchase a cryptocurrency called "Campcoin" by falsely advertising that token holders would have access to ART, a supposedly high-returning foreign exchange trading algorithm.
However, defendants never received approval from the National Futures Association (NFA) regarding ART, the complaint said, meaning that customers could not legally apply the algorithm. As a result, Compcoin holders never got to utilize ART as promised.
The NFA has filed a responsibility action against Friedland and Fintech Investment Group in March 2020 following the former's alleged failure to provide the requested information. The action has prevented them from further soliciting customer funds related to foreign exchange trading.
Right now, the CFTC is aiming for civil monetary penalties, restitution, and permanent bans on registration and trading against the defendants.
