Chicago Trader to Pay $377,000 for Forex and Commodity Fraud Charges

Trader's company was also part of the consent order issued by a court in Illinois.

The order also permanently prohibits further violations of the CEA and CFTC

The defendants are Dro Kholamian of Barrington, Illinois and his company, Blue Star Trading, LLC (Blue Star), which had an office in Park Ridge, Illinois. The consent order resolves a CFTC action filed on November 30, 2018 alleging solicitation fraud, misappropriation of client funds, and failing to register with the CFTC as a commodity trading advisor and an associated person.

The order finds that between January 2013 and November 2018, defendants solicited and accepted $995,000 from clients for futures and forex trading through accounts managed by Kholamian and Blue Star.

Through his affiliation with his Armenian church and social contacts of Armenian heritage, Kholamian sought out some clients. Defendants returned $768,000 to their clients and stole $227,000, using those funds to pay other clients in a Ponzi scheme-like fashion, as well as to pay for Kholamian's personal and business expenses.

In addition to $227,000 in restitution, Kholamian and Blue Star must pay a civil monetary penalty of $150,000. In addition to permanently prohibiting further violations of the Act and CFTC regulations, the order imposes permanent registration and trading bans on the defendants.

Recent CFTC Enforcement Actions

Recently, the CFTC filed a civil enforcement action to charge four operators for running a $44 million Bitcoin Ponzi scheme .

Dwayne Golden of Florida, Jatin Patel of India, Marquis Egerton of North Carolina and Gregory Aggesen of New York were charged with fraud for operating Ponzi schemes involving Bitcoin, for fraudulently soliciting more than $44 million of investments, and for misappropriating millions of dollars. Golden, Patel and Egerton are accused of fraudulently soliciting more than $23 million worth of Bitcoins through the websites Empowercoin and Ecoinplus.