US judge orders California man to pay $36 million for cryptocurrency and foreign exchange fraud

BlockBeats news, September 21, according to a statement released by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on Friday, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California Judge Vince Chhabria sentenced 30-year-old William Koo Ichioka to pay $31 million to victims and a $5 million civil penalty.

The CFTC accused Ichioka of misappropriating funds in a scam involving cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin and Ethereum) and foreign exchange transactions in June 2023. As part of a parallel action, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also filed charges against him.

Ichioka claims to be someone who "started pursuing wealth very early and has accumulated millions of dollars in wealth." According to the court verdict, he told investors that participating in his commodity liquidity pool would earn a 10% return every 30 business days.

Ichioka did use some of the investor funds to invest in startup stocks, digital asset commodities and foreign exchange transactions, but he also "mixed participants' funds with his own funds" and used the money to pay for other expenses such as rent, restaurants, bars, taxis, gym memberships and luxury cars.