Market Manipulation. Search

CFTC v. Ronald Montano and Montano Enterprises LLC (binary options solicitation fraud, 2021)

Judgment entered

Checked against the primary document on October 2, 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.

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In 2021, a Florida federal court permanently enjoined Ronald Montano and Montano Enterprises LLC and ordered US$825,000 in restitution and a US$1.675 million penalty for fraudulently soliciting customers for binary options trading.

The record

Structured fields for this action, as recorded in our case library.
Agency CFTC
Release number 8425-21
Date filed 2021-09-15
Date resolved 2021-09-15
Court U.S. District Court, Middle District of Florida
Status judgment
Criminal parallel No
Defendants Ronald Montano (individual) ; Montano Enterprises LLC (entity)
Techniques

What was ordered

Civil penalty
$1.7m
Disgorgement
—
Prejudgment interest
—
Total relief
$1.7m
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 September 15, 2021 as release 8425-21. The respondents named are Ronald Montano and Montano Enterprises LLC (1 individual, 1 entity).

The order finds that Montano used fraudulent solicitations to bring customers to binary options trading; the word "fictitious" in the release refers to the solicitation, not to a trade. No wash trading is described.

This library applies no technique tag to the matter. The conduct is solicitation fraud, not wash trading.

A $1.675 million civil monetary penalty, $825,000 in restitution, and trading and registration bans.

The court entered a permanent injunction and money judgment.

Timeline

  1. 2021-09-15 CFTC release published

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

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.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.