CFTC v. Abner Alejandro Tinoco and Kikit & Mess Investments, LLC (2022)

Settled

Checked against the primary document on October 3, 2026. The library's summary, tags and figures for this record were compared with the regulator's own document by an AI model (Claude) following written instructions, with sampled and disputed records read a second time. No lawyer has reviewed them. A checked record can still contain errors, and checked does not mean endorsed. See how we check records or report a correction.

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In March 2022 the CFTC announced a consent order in El Paso finding Abner Tinoco and Kikit & Mess Investments liable for fraudulently soliciting at least $7.2 million from at least 322 clients for forex and crypto managed accounts and misappropriating it. They are permanently banned from trading and registration; amounts of restitution, disgorgement and penalty are reserved.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency	CFTC
Release number	8507-22
Date filed	2022-03-29
Date resolved	2022-03-29
Court	U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
Status	settled
Asset class	crypto, fx
Criminal parallel	No
Bars imposed	trading ban
Defendants	Abner Alejandro Tinoco (individual) ; Kikit & Mess Investments, LLC (entity)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty: —
Disgorgement: —
Prejudgment interest: —
Total relief: —
Alleged gain: —

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 CFTC announced the order on March 29, 2022 (release 8507-22); it was signed on March 25. The order finds the money paid for personal expenses, private jet charters, a mansion and luxury cars, and some bogus profits to clients in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme.

The Ponzi tag is removed because the order finds a managed-account fraud and misappropriation. The record had no defendants or court and omitted the ban; these are added.

Timeline

2022-03-29 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.

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.