CFTC v. Dwight A. Foster and K.E.L. Enterprises, Inc. (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Settled

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In July 2023 the CFTC charged Dwight A. Foster and K.E.L. Enterprises, Inc. with a forex pool fraud. A July 2023 consent order enjoined both, and a supplemental consent order announced on July 2, 2024 set restitution, disgorgement and a civil penalty.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$1.6m

Disgorgement

$803k

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$2.4m

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 July 6, 2023 as release 8744-23. The complaint alleges that Foster and his unregistered pool operator took in about $13.2 million, misappropriated pool funds for personal expenses, and used about $10.1 million of later participants' money to pay earlier participants in a Ponzi-like scheme.

This library tags the matter as a Ponzi scheme because the document describes returns to earlier investors paid from later investors' money, as alleged or found. The tagging is ours, not the regulator's: agencies charge statutory provisions, not technique names.

A parallel criminal proceeding is referenced. Civil and criminal outcomes are recorded separately, because they resolve on different standards of proof.

On July 2, 2024 the CFTC announced that the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan had entered a supplemental consent order against Foster and K.E.L., following an initial consent order of permanent injunction entered on July 18, 2023. According to the CFTC, the supplemental order requires them, jointly and severally, to pay $4,548,390.51 in restitution, $803,126.83 in disgorgement and a $1.6 million civil monetary penalty. The initial order also banned both from trading in CFTC-regulated markets and from registering with the CFTC.

The two consent orders resolve the CFTC's action against both named defendants. The recorded date is the date of the CFTC's announcement; the press release does not state the date the supplemental order was entered. The CFTC release describes findings made in the consent order; because the defendants consented, those findings were not tried. The release does not report the outcome of the parallel criminal matter referenced in this record.

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. 2023-07-06 CFTC release published
2. 2024-07-02 CFTC announces supplemental consent order

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 on supplemental 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.