CFTC v. New Mexico Resident (ponzi schemes, 2019)

Settled

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A consent order entered April 7, 2021 in the District of New Mexico requires Douglas Lien to pay $5,195,679 in restitution and a $5,195,679 civil penalty and permanently bars him from trading and CFTC registration. The order records his admission that he misappropriated client funds.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$5.2m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$5.2m

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 December 10, 2019 (release 8094-19) in the District of New Mexico. It alleges he paid some clients with other clients' money, charged fees on invented profits, put off redemption requests with false excuses and failed to register.

The defendant was recorded as an unnamed New Mexico resident; he is now named.

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 8376-21 (April 8, 2021) reports a consent order for permanent injunction, monetary sanctions and equitable relief against Lien. It orders restitution of $5,195,679 and an equal civil penalty and imposes permanent trading and registration bans. According to the release, the order records Lien's admission that he misappropriated money meant for futures trading and issued false account statements for nearly 20 years, and describes the money taken as more than $14.2 million from 45 people. Restitution is not a separate field in this record. The release says the order resolves the case filed on December 9, 2019.

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. 2019-12-10 CFTC release published
2. 2021-04-07 Consent order for permanent injunction and monetary sanctions entered

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 8376-21 (consent order)

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.