CFTC v. Walsh (ponzi schemes, 2020)

Judgment entered

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In September 2020 the CFTC announced that a court-appointed receiver had completed a final distribution in its 2009 case over a $1.3 billion Ponzi scheme run through a commodity pool by Stephen Walsh and Paul Greenwood, bringing returns to investors above $1 billion, 100% of approved claims. Final judgments against them were entered in November 2019.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

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Alleged gain

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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 distribution on September 11, 2020 (release 8238-20), pursuant to an order of August 24, 2020 in the Southern District of New York. Recoveries included over $88 million clawed back from fully redeemed customers, a $14 million horse farm and antique teddy bears sold for over $3.7 million. The release states no penalty amounts.

The record named the defendant only as "Walsh"; Greenwood is now listed too.

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.

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. 2020-09-11 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.

• CFTC release
• CFTC order or complaint

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.