The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered an order for permanent injunction, monetary sanctions, and equitable relief against Alan Friedland of Florida and his Florida-based companies, Fintech Investment Group, Inc, and Compcoin LLC. The defendants have been charged with fraudulently soliciting customers to purchase a digital asset they falsely promised would allow customers to gain access to a proprietary Forex trading algorithm.

The order requires the defendants to pay $1,200,000 in restitution and a $600,000 civil monetary penalty. In addition, the order imposes a permanent ban on Friedland, Compcoin LLC, and Fintech from soliciting or trading in commodity interests or registering with the CFTC in any capacity.

The jury trial commenced on January 31, 2022. Without admitting or denying the allegations in the complaint, the defendants consented to settle on all claims during the CFTC’s presentation of its case, on the fourth day of trial.

According to the order, which adopted the parties’ agreed findings of fact and conclusions of law, from approximately 2016 through 2018, Friedland and his companies fraudulently solicited customers and prospective customers to purchase a digital asset known as Compcoin. The defendants falsely promised, among other things, that Compcoin would allow customers to gain access to what they described as Fintech’s proprietary Forex algorithmic trading program known as ART.

In solicitation materials, the defendants represented, among other things, that the ART trading algorithm was “complete in form and function,” and “ready for release on the open market.” The defendants also represented that “ART’s high success rate at predicting…forex trades, coupled with the high rate of return from these trades, will stimulate demand among investors and forex traders to purchase and use Compcoin—specifically to gain access to ART.”

As reflected in the order, the defendants knew that customers could not lawfully use ART until Fintech received approval of its disclosure documents from the National Futures Association (NFA). Nonetheless, the defendants offered Compcoin prior to Fintech seeking NFA approval of its disclosure documents. Although the defendants touted the successful performance of ART, they knew that its performance, which was referenced in solicitations, was based largely or entirely on hypothetical performance results and not real trading.

The defendants also knew the Compcoin LLC website and solicitations did not contain the required disclaimer for simulated or hypothetical performance. Ultimately, the NFA did not approve Fintech’s risk disclosure statements, and purchasers of Compcoin never gained access to the supposedly highly profitable forex trading algorithm as promised. Instead, purchasers of Compcoin were left with a worthless digital asset.

The CFTC cautions that orders requiring repayment of funds to victims may not result in the recovery of any money lost because the wrongdoers may not have sufficient funds or assets.