CFTC secures Court order against Ztegrity
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered a consent order for a permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief against Troy Mason and his company, Ztegrity, Inc.
The consent order resolves a CFTC action filed in June 2021 alleging fraudulent solicitation and failing to register with the CFTC as required by the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations.
The order requires Mason and Ztegrity to pay $643,570 in restitution to victims and to pay a $300,000 civil monetary penalty. The order also permanently prohibits the defendants from further violations of the CEA and CFTC regulations, as charged, and imposes permanent registration and trading bans.
The order finds that from approximately October 2019 to June 2021, the defendants used various websites and social media platforms to fraudulently market their forex trading pool as a version of a savings account that offered a greater yield with similarly low or no risk. The defendants called this forex trading pool “The Black Club” and “The Forex Savings Club,” which their website claimed had received over $460,000 from 411 participants.
The order further finds the defendants induced participation in their forex trading pool by falsely claiming to “guarantee” to repay participants the funds they contributed to their individual “Forex Savings Accounts” and falsely offered participants “with a 100% certainty” portions of the “substantial profit[s]” to be generated using participants’ pooled funds to trade forex. In truth, the defendants knew or recklessly failed to appreciate that no forex trader can guarantee profitable trading, or the avoidance of losses required to guarantee all participants’ contributions, and knew, but failed to inform participants, they had no U.S.-based forex trading accounts.
Finally, the order finds the defendants illegally operated their commodity pool by failing to register as commodity pool operators, in violation of the CEA and CFTC regulations.