CFTC v. Allied Markets, Gilliland, Wongkhiao (ponzi schemes, 2015)

Judgment entered

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In January 2015 the CFTC announced a complaint, filed under seal January 6, against Allied Markets LLC and principals Joshua Gilliland and Chawalit Wongkhiao of Jacksonville, Florida, alleging a forex pool fraud that paid purported profits and returned principal in the manner of a Ponzi scheme. The CFTC's October 30, 2019 release reports judgments against all three: the principals on March 4, 2019 and the company later, with roughly $1.2 million each in penalty and restitution against the company, and permanent commodity-activity bans.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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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 complaint alleges that from about January 2012 the defendants solicited more than $1 million for forex trading, withdrew about $850,000 from the trading account for personal spending, and falsely guaranteed returns. A Middle District of Florida judge froze assets on January 7 and set a preliminary injunction hearing for January 21.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes payments to earlier participants made from later participants' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. The CFTC's release of October 30, 2019 says the Middle District of Florida entered a judgment against Allied Markets finding it ran a fraudulent forex pool and misappropriated customer funds. It requires a civil monetary penalty of approximately $1.2 million and $1.2 million in restitution and permanently bans the company from commodity-related activity and from further violations. The release says the principals, Gilliland and Wongkhiao, were subject to a March 4, 2019 judgment imposing the same kind of permanent ban; their monetary terms are not given in the release, so no figure is stored. The orders find misrepresentations and misappropriation, with funds spent on personal items such as gym memberships and luxury car rentals. The release also reports that both principals pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and were sentenced on February 1, 2016 to 55 months (Wongkhiao) and 15 months (Gilliland). The release gives the announcement date for the company judgment, not the date of signing, and states penalty figures only as rounded amounts.

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. 2015-01-12 CFTC release published
2. 2019-10-30 CFTC announces judgment against Allied Markets (principals judged March 4, 2019)

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 release 8066-19 (judgments)

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.

Related actions

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

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.