CFTC v. International Enterprise (rigged binary options execution, 2019)

Judgment entered

✓ Checked against the primary document on October 4, 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.

Report an error in this record (cftc-international-enterprise-rigged-binary-options-execution-2019) by email

In August 2019 the CFTC sued five offshore entities and four individuals over a binary options enterprise (BigOption, BinaryBook, BinaryOnline) alleged to have taken over $103 million. Yakov Cohen consented in September 2024 to disgorge $7 million, and on 29 January 2025 an Illinois federal court entered a default judgment against the other eight defendants, ordering $112,918,458 in restitution and a $338,755,374 penalty, jointly and severally.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$339m

Disgorgement

$7m

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$346m

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 August 12, 2019 as release 7995-19. The respondents named are five foreign entities (Yukom Communications Ltd., Linkopia Mauritius Ltd., Wirestech Limited d/b/a BigOption, WSB Investments Ltd. d/b/a BinaryBook and Zolarex Ltd. d/b/a BinaryOnline) and four individuals (Yakov Cohen, Yossi Herzog, Lee Elbaz and Shalom Peretz). The action was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

As alleged, from March 2014 the defendants solicited more than $103 million through internet trading websites, telling customers the binary options were real transactions subject to market conditions when they were mere book entries whose outcomes could be and were manipulated; the entities were on the opposite side of every trade, and about 95 percent of customers lost money. The complaint also alleges high-pressure sales by "brokers" who misstated their expertise and identity, and failure to register as futures commission merchants. An email quoted in the complaint from Ms Elbaz calls the sales floor "a boiler room". The release adds that a parallel criminal trial of Ms Elbaz ended in a federal jury verdict on August 7, 2019, on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy resting on substantially the same facts.

The release describes internet trading sites and a rigged product, not shares sold by cold-calling, so this library retags the matter from boiler rooms to rigged binary options execution.

This library tags the matter as rigged binary options execution, based on the conduct the document describes. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

Outcome. The CFTC's September 2024 release says the Northern District of Illinois entered a consent order against Cohen on 5 September 2024 requiring $7 million in disgorgement, resolving the claims against him. A January 2025 release says that on 29 January 2025 the court entered a default judgment against the five entities and Herzog, Elbaz and Peretz, finding them liable for fraud, and ordering them to pay $112,918,458 in restitution and a $338,755,374 civil monetary penalty, jointly and severally, with permanent injunctions and permanent registration and trading bans (the order's own text gives both figures; the release rounds them). The restitution figure is not stored in this record's money fields, and the penalty field holds the default-judgment penalty only. The default judgment is not a trial finding, and the consent order is a settlement.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above. This page deliberately summarises the structured record rather than reproducing the release.

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.

• Rigged binary options execution — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2019-08-12 CFTC release published
2. 2024-09-05 Consent order entered against Yakov Cohen: $7 million disgorgement
3. 2025-01-29 Default judgment entered against the five entities and Herzog, Elbaz and Peretz: $112,918,458 restitution, $338,755,374 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 8962-24 (Cohen consent order)
• CFTC press release 9040-25 (default judgment)
• Default judgment order, 29 January 2025

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.