- Federal court docket ordered William Koo Ichioka to pay $31 million in restitution and $5 million in financial penalty.
- The New York resident was charged and ordered to pay the full $36 million for defrauding victims in a foreign exchange and crypto scheme.
A New York man is to pay a complete of $36 million for defrauding victims in a scheme involving foreign exchange and crypto.
In a press launch on Sept. 20, the CFTC stated William Koo Ichioka, previously of San Francisco, can pay $31 million in restitution to the victims of his fraudulent scheme and $5 million in civil financial penalty.
The tremendous was handed by Decide Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California in an order given on Sept. 19.
CFTC filed costs in opposition to Ichioka in June 2023
The CFTC filed a civil enforcement motion in opposition to Ichioka in June 2023. The fees concerned the fraudulent soliciting and stealing over $21 million from greater than 100 commodity pool individuals. Ichioka admitted to the fees and agreed to an order of judgment.
Allegations in opposition to Ichioka associated to a scheme from 2018 that lied to unsuspecting individuals in funding funds.
The person claimed buyers would get a ten% return on their funds each 30 days. Nevertheless, this didn’t occur and Ichioka commingled funds from victims together with his personal cash, utilizing these funds on private bills similar to hire, jewellery and luxurious autos.
“To conceal his fraudulent activity, Ichioka overstated the value of assets he held by generating false financial documents and presenting false account statements to participants,” CFTC famous within the press launch.
Parallel legal case
Ichioka additionally pleaded responsible to costs filed by the Division of Justice in June 2023, with the case working parallel to the CFTC grievance. Costs included wire fraud, false tax returns and commodities fraud. For the 5 counts, the court docket sentenced Ichioka to 48 months in jail.
He additionally obtained a 5-year supervised launch sentence. The court docket imposed a $5 million tremendous and $31,330,715.86 in restitution.
On August 14, 2023, the court docket ordered a everlasting injunction and prohibited Ichioka from any future violations. He was additionally barred from buying and selling in any CFTC-regulated markets or registering with the regulator.
Based on the CFTC, that order and the financial penalty mark the tip of CFTC’s enforcement motion in opposition to the New York resident.
