SEC v. CLS Global FZC LLC and Andrey Zhorzhes (paid crypto market making, 2024)

Settled

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In October 2024 the SEC charged CLS Global FZC LLC, a UAE crypto market maker, and Andrey Zhorzhes over an alleged scheme to create false trading activity in the NexFundAI token. On April 7, 2025 CLS Global consented to a final judgment with an injunction, a $425,000 penalty, $3,000 in disgorgement and $80.39 in interest, plus undertakings to stop serving U.S. clients; the release does not report an outcome for Zhorzhes.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

$425k

Disgorgement

$3k

Prejudgment interest

$80

Total relief

$428k

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 Securities and Exchange Commission filed this complaint on October 9, 2024 and announced it on October 15, 2024 as litigation release LR-26154, in civil action 1:24-cv-12590 in the District of Massachusetts. The defendants are CLS Global FZC LLC and Andrey Zhorzhes (1 individual, 1 entity).

The complaint alleges that the promoters of NexFundAI, a crypto asset the FBI had created as part of its own market-manipulation investigation and that was offered as a security to retail investors, hired CLS Global to provide market-manipulation-as-a-service. CLS Global and Zhorzhes allegedly traded the token in ways that served no economic purpose and used an algorithm to generate artificial volume, to give investors the false impression of an active market. The SEC charges Securities Act Sections 17(a)(1) and (3) and Exchange Act Sections 9(a)(2) and 10(b) and Rules 10b-5(a) and (c).

The complaint asked for permanent and conduct-based injunctions, disgorgement with interest and penalties. Those are requested remedies, so no bar or money is recorded, and an earlier version that listed a conduct-based injunction as imposed was wrong. The U.S. Attorney's Office announced a parallel criminal action. A later record covers CLS Global's 2025 resolution.

For the regulator's own account of the facts, read the primary document linked above.

Outcome. SEC litigation release LR-26287 (April 17, 2025) reports that the District of Massachusetts entered a final judgment against CLS Global on April 7, 2025, to which the company consented. It enjoins CLS Global from violating the cited antifraud and market-manipulation provisions, orders a $425,000 civil penalty, $3,000 in disgorgement and $80.39 in prejudgment interest, and requires undertakings: take steps to ensure its clients are not U.S. persons, adopt new-client procedures, and certify compliance. Payments may be offset by amounts paid in the parallel criminal case, United States v. CLS Global FZC LLC et al., No. 24-cr-10293 (D. Mass.). This outcome covers CLS Global only; the release does not resolve the claims against Andrey Zhorzhes, and we did not check how those ended.

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.

• Paid crypto market making — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2024-10-09 Complaint filed (D. Mass.)
2. 2024-10-15 Litigation release published
3. 2025-04-07 Final consent judgment entered against CLS Global FZC LLC (reported in LR-26287)

Primary documents

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

• SEC litigation release
• SEC litigation release LR-26287 (CLS Global final 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 20, 2026. submit a correction.