CFTC v. Adam Todd and Digitex entities (price manipulation, 2022)

Judgment entered

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In September 2022 the CFTC sued Florida resident Adam Todd and four companies operating the Digitex Futures exchange. On July 5, 2023 the Southern District of Florida entered a default judgment, with disgorgement of $3,912,220, a civil penalty of $11,736,660, and a permanent trading and registration ban. The court found the CFTC had sufficiently pleaded attempted manipulation of the DGTX token.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 October 3, 2022 as release 8605-22. The respondents named are Adam Todd, Digitex LLC, Digitex Limited, Digitex Software Limited and Blockster Holdings Limited Corporation (1 individual, 4 entities). The action was brought in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida.

The complaint alleges that in summer 2020 Todd repeatedly tried to pump the DGTX price on third-party exchanges to benefit the exchange's own holdings, even at a trading loss. This library tags the matter as price manipulation.

The conduct is recorded against crypto, with OTC identified in the release.

Outcome. CFTC Press Release 8748-23 (July 12, 2023) says Judge Roy Altman issued a default judgment and permanent injunction on July 5, 2023 against Adam Todd, Digitex LLC, Digitex Limited, Digitex Software Limited and Blockster Holdings Limited Corporation. The order bans them from trading in CFTC-regulated markets and from registering with the CFTC, and requires Todd to pay $3,912,220 in disgorgement and an $11,736,660 civil penalty. The release says the court found the CFTC had sufficiently pleaded attempted manipulation of the DGTX token and its other charges; because the judgment was by default, the defendants did not contest the charges. The release does not say whether any money has been collected.

Money note: the dollar amounts in this record's text describe the July 2023 default judgment; to avoid counting the same amounts twice, the money fields are left empty here and the figures are held on the record for the judgment release 8748-23 (cftc-florida-price-manipulation-2023).

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.

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

Timeline

1. 2022-10-03 CFTC release published
2. 2023-07-05 Default judgment and permanent injunction entered ($3,912,220 disgorgement, $11,736,660 penalty)

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 press release 8748-23 (default 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.

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.