CFTC v. Colorado Resident (ponzi schemes, 2020)

Judgment entered

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The CFTC announced on November 4, 2020 that the District of Colorado had entered judgment against Breonna Clark and Venture Capital Investments LLC, ordering $450,302 in restitution and a $450,302 penalty and permanent trading and registration bans.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$450k

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$450k

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 complaint on February 14, 2020 (release 8118-20) in the District of Colorado. It alleges false statements about experience and track record, false account statements showing gains and failure to register.

The defendant was recorded as an unnamed Colorado resident and the trading and registration bans, once only sought, are now recorded as imposed.

This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because the document describes it as a scheme paying earlier investors with later investors' money. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. CFTC release 8304-20 (November 4, 2020) reports that the court entered judgment against Clark, who also used other names, and her company VCI. It orders $450,302 in restitution, an equal civil monetary penalty and the CFTC's costs, permanently enjoins both defendants and bars them from CFTC registration and from trading in CFTC-regulated markets. The release says the court found they solicited more than 72 clients with social media claims and misappropriated the money, including Ponzi-type payments. The entry date of the judgment is not stated, so the release date is used. Restitution is not a separate field here.

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. 2020-02-14 CFTC release published
2. 2020-11-04 CFTC announces judgment against Clark and Venture Capital Investments

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 release 8304-20 (judgment)

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.