CFTC v. Darren Robinson and The QYU Holdings Inc. (ponzi schemes, 2023)

Judgment entered

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In September 2023 the CFTC charged Darren Robinson and The QYU Holdings Inc. A default judgment announced on April 26, 2024 requires $5,923,515.37 in restitution and an equal civil penalty and bans both from trading and registration.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$5.9m

Disgorgement

—

Prejudgment interest

—

Total relief

$5.9m

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 28, 2023 as release 8792-23. The complaint alleges that Robinson and his firm took not less than $7.1 million into an unregistered commodity pool, misappropriated all of it, and used about $1.27 million of later participants' money to pay earlier participants in the nature of a Ponzi scheme. A criminal complaint was filed in a separate action.

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 April 26, 2024 the CFTC announced that Judge Linda V. Parker of the Eastern District of Michigan had issued an order of default judgment and permanent injunction against Robinson and QYUHI. According to the release, they must pay, jointly and severally, $5,923,515.37 in restitution and a civil monetary penalty of the same amount, and are banned from CFTC-regulated trading and registration. The release says the order resolves the CFTC action.

The release also reports that Robinson was indicted in January 2024 in a separate criminal case and was described as a fugitive at the time of the release; it does not report a criminal outcome. As a default judgment, the allegations were not tested at trial. The date recorded is the CFTC's announcement date; the entry date is not given.

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. 2023-09-28 CFTC release published
2. 2024-04-26 CFTC announces default judgment

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 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.