The United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has submitted a motion for default judgment against one of the individuals behind fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme Global Trading Club (GTC).

The CFTC filed a proposed default judgment against Rodrigo Jose Castro Molina with the Texas Southern District Court earlier this week. The document, seen by FX News Group, outlines the penalties to be imposed on Castro.

The Commission seeks an Order providing that Castro will pay, jointly and severally with the other defendants in this case, restitution in the amount of $989,550, plus post-judgment interest. He will also have to pay a civil monetary penalty of $749,728, plus post-judgment interest, pursuant to Section 6c(d)(1)(A) of the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 13a-1(d)(1)(A) (2018).

The proposed order will also permanently restrain, enjoin, and prohibit Castro from directly or indirectly trading on or subject to the rules of any registered entity. He will also be permanently restrained, enjoined, and prohibited from directly or indirectly using or employing or attempting to use or employ, in connection with any swap, or a contract of sale of any commodity in interstate commerce, or for future delivery on or subject to the rules of any registered entity, any manipulative or deceptive device or contrivance.

Let’s recall that, in September 2020, the CFTC filed a complaint against four individuals for fraudulently soliciting funds from customers to speculate in Bitcoin price movements. The defendants are Texas residents Mayco Alexis Maldonado Garcia, Cesar Castaneda, and Rodrigo Jose Castro Molina, and Florida resident Joel Castaneda Garcia.

The complaint alleges that from at least August 2016 through October 2017, the defendants falsely represented to actual and potential customers that their business, named Global Trading Club (GTC), employed “master traders” who had years of experience trading “crypto currency,” and used “cutting edge trading robots” to trade Bitcoin for customers “24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

The defendants further falsely represented that customer earnings would increase based on the amount of their deposits. Customers were also falsely promised a bonus for referring others, in the form of a multi-level marketing scheme. To conceal their fraud, the defendants caused misleading trading statements to be posted online.

The complaint further alleges that at least 27 individual customers deposited at least $989,000 with one or more representatives of GTC.