CFTC v. Swapnil Rege and SwapStar Capital LLC (ponzi schemes, 2022)

Judgment entered

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In September 2022 the CFTC announced a judgment against Swapnil Rege and SwapStar Capital LLC. A final judgment on consent finds that the defendants fraudulently solicited lenders and investors with promised fixed returns of up to 60%, misappropriated funds, paid other account holders in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme, and that Rege breached an earlier CFTC consent order. It imposes permanent trading and registration bans, $4,894,225 in disgorgement (joint and several with relief defendant Reema Rege, limited to specified account balances), $161,335 of prejudgment interest and a $200,000 penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$200k

Disgorgement

$4.9m

Prejudgment interest

$161k

Total relief

$5.3m

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 Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced this matter on September 2, 2022 as release 8579-22. A final judgment on consent finds that the defendants fraudulently solicited lenders and investors with promised fixed returns of up to 60%, misappropriated funds, paid other account holders in a manner akin to a Ponzi scheme, and that Rege breached an earlier CFTC consent order. It imposes permanent trading and registration bans, $4,894,225 in disgorgement (joint and several with relief defendant Reema Rege, limited to specified account balances), $161,335 of prejudgment interest and a $200,000 penalty.

This library tags the matter as a Ponzi scheme because the document describes returns to earlier investors paid from later investors' money, as alleged or found. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

The relief recorded in our data is a civil penalty of $200,000, disgorgement of $4,894,225, prejudgment interest of $161,335, as the release or order states it. 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.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique 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.

• Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2022-09-02 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

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.

Same matter

The library links these 2 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.