CFTC v. Peter Szatmari (binary options solicitation fraud, 2020)

Judgment entered

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In 2020, a Hawaii federal court entered a default judgment against affiliate marketer Peter Szatmari for fraudulently soliciting U.S. residents to open binary options accounts, ordering about US$6.25 million in restitution, US$1.9 million in disgorgement and a US$5.7 million penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$5.7m

Disgorgement

$1.9m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$7.6m

Alleged gain

$3.8m

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars.

What is alleged to have happened

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on October 13, 2020 as release 8285-20. The respondents named are Peter Szatmari (1 individual, 0 entities).

The release describes Szatmari, formerly of Hawaii, as an affiliate marketer who drew U.S. customers to unregistered off-exchange binary options brokers through fraudulent solicitations. It does not describe trading by Szatmari in any market.

This library applies no technique tag to the matter. The conduct is solicitation fraud. It does not involve rigged binary-options execution or any manipulative trading.

The court ordered about $6.25 million in restitution, $1.9 million in disgorgement and a $5.7 million civil monetary penalty, with permanent injunctions and trading and registration bans.

The judgment was entered by default after a magistrate judge's recommendations.

Timeline

1. 2020-10-13 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• CFTC release
• CFTC order or complaint
• CFTC order or complaint

The linked release is a work of the United States government and is not subject to copyright. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.