CFTC v. unnamed respondents (paid stock promotion, 2020)
Judgment entered
Machine-extracted, pending human review. The structured fields on this page were parsed automatically from the regulator's own release, linked below. Read the primary document before relying on any figure here, and tell us if something is wrong.
In 2020, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission obtained a judgment against the named respondents, alleging conduct this library classifies as paid stock promotion and ponzi schemes. The release records a civil penalty of $450,302.
The record
| Agency | CFTC |
|---|---|
| Release number | 8304-20 |
| Date filed | 2020-11-04 |
| Date resolved | 2020-11-04 |
| Court | U.S. District Court, District of Colorado |
| Status | judgment |
| Asset class | crypto |
| Criminal parallel | No |
| Defendants | |
| Techniques | Paid stock promotion , Ponzi schemes |
What was ordered
- Civil penalty
- $450k
- Disgorgement
- —
- Prejudgment interest
- —
- Total relief
- $450k
- Alleged gain
- —
What is alleged to have happened
the Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on November 4, 2020 as release 8304-20. The respondents named are the named respondents. The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, District of Colorado.
This library tags the matter as paid stock promotion and ponzi schemes, based on the conduct the regulator describes. Each tag links to a page explaining how that technique works, what statute it engages, and what penalties comparable actions have attracted. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.
The conduct is recorded against crypto.
The relief recorded in our data is a civil monetary penalty of $450,302. Penalty and disgorgement are distinct: disgorgement returns the gain, while the penalty is punitive. We store them separately so that aggregate figures across the library are not double-counted.
For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.
What technique is this, and how does it work?
This action is tagged with 2 techniques in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.
- Paid stock promotion — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
- Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.
Timeline
- 2020-11-04 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.
Related actions
Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.
| Action | Agency | Filed | Technique | Penalty | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SEC v. Diana Mae Fernandez (paid stock promotion, 2025) | SEC | 2025-07-11 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | judgment |
| SEC v. Prosperity, Investments & Lending, LLC (paid stock promotion, 2024) | SEC | 2024-01-18 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | settled |
| SEC v. Stephen L. Bailey, Sapphire Exploration LLC, and Harris Exploration Inc. (paid stock promotion, 2023) | SEC | 2023-09-25 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | filed |
| SEC v. Brent Seaman, Accanito Holdings, LLC, and others (paid stock promotion, 2023) | SEC | 2023-07-28 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | judgment |
| SEC v. Nayeem Choudhury and Dream Venture Capital Group, LLC (paid stock promotion, 2023) | SEC | 2023-07-12 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | unknown |
| SEC v. BNZ One Capital, LLC, et al. (paid stock promotion, 2021) | SEC | 2021-10-29 | Paid Stock Promotion , Ponzi Schemes | — | filed |